incredible. the deep haunting, the sumptuous foreground textures

Howling packs of wolves, Austowska Forest Poland
In the background beak clapping of Capercaillie

Wolws Augustowska JAREK - MATUSIAK

This recording commences not more than about half an hour after several days of heavy rain abated... During most of this recording, it is no longer raining, but rain water accumulated on eucalypt trees and grass trees continues to drip from boughs, branches and leaves for many hours... Wind conditions were mostly calm, but occasional breezes passed through the space. The recording location is three and a half kilometres from the southern coastline of the Fleurieu Peninsula, at an elevation of 280 metres: a coastline of cliffs and rocks. In the stillness of the night, the ocean's surging, and even occasional waves thumping upon rocks or against cliffs, can often be clearly heard.

This excerpt from a longer recording runs from 00:16:30 to 03:40:15. (The longer recording continues through First Light and Sunrise into Morning.) It was recorded with a pair of Sennheiser MKH 8020s in AB array with 62 cm spacing into a Sound Devices MixPre-6 II. This is the original recording, unedited and unprocessed, recorded at a preamp gain setting of 65 dB.

The environment within which, and the land upon which, this recording was recorded, has been, is now, and will always be, under the spiritual and physical custodianship of the indigenous Ngarrindjeri and Kaurna peoples, who understood so much more deeply and fully than our culture does today, that the land, the water, and the sky are not 'our property'; rather, we belong to them, we depend upon them, as a foetus in the womb depends upon its mother. The birth that humanity strives for is  not a physical, merely 'material', birth. But very few understand what this means. Even if we travel to other stars, in search of another 'virgin' planet to strip bare, rape, and exploit for meaningless and useless 'profit' and 'power' that serves no better purpose than a means to further increase equally meaningless and useless 'profit' and 'power', we will necessarily be enveloped in space craft, dressed in space suits, housed under airtight domes, that carry with them, within them, the original air and nutriments of our mother planet - as a reminder of our hubris, our ignorance, our arrogance, our stupidity, our greed, and ... our species and civilisational immaturity.

2022.08.14 Night Ambience. Coastal Eucalypt and Grass-Tree Forest. Late Winter.

A few minutes of light rain falls through tall cypress trees and onto the flooded forest floor, then very distant thunder rumbles through the Big Cypress National Preserve, Florida. Four clips blended from the hour-long storm, August 2022 with Usi Pro omni pair attached to cypress tree 18 inches apart, and Zoom F3 recorder.

Brief Rain, Distant Thunder

The White River Tale

A long soundscape across Dawn in the Queets River Valley rainforest of the Olympic National Park. Starting in Astronomical Twilight, a small herd of Roosevelt Elk walks in from a distance, though a small forest glade, an away towards the Queets River bed.

Early Autumn rainfall and dropping Maple Leaves are the dominant sounds to begin, their pak-pak-spaks are a reminder that time passes, even in the still quiet of a moss-covered forest.

Highway 101 in less than 12 miles away, and distant traffic is funneled up the Valley, showing the difficulty of escaping human-generated sound. This has been mitigated somewhat with light processing, but close listening and inspection will make remnants evident. There are no other edits or processes committed.

I love the crisp cold air of the rainforests in the fall. Sounds, natural and human generated, carry into the distant. Tucked into my sleeping bag, I lay back in my small tent, listening to the forest awaken. Where once there was just the soft distant wash of the river, the elk are joined by the local birds. Steller's Jays shriek their song with grating-yet-amusing "CHA-CHA-CHA-CHAs". A Northern Saw-whet toots in the forest canopy. Young Varied Thrush practice their songs, not quite reaching the beautiful and haunting signature fluting of their predecessors, instead emitting a silly buzzer-bell-like noise. Pacific Wren singing at the end of their season and the occasional Kingfisher make an appearance as well. Noe of these complete with the sheer vibrance of the elk.

Roosevelt Elk or Roosevelt's Wapiti or Rainforest Elk are the largest remaining elk species in North America and thrive in shadowy silences of the Pacific Northwest's temperate rainforests. Bull's bugles and roars echo through the trees, becoming one of the signature sounds of the Olympic Mountains. The cows mew and squeal in return, listening for one another to not wander far astray.

The small herd is a tight-nit family group, a with one, maybe two, dominant bulls, five or six cows in their harem, and a handful of young. The dominant bull leads the group on a daily hike, down from the upper valley to the river and back again. Their bugles urge the group, both signaling the direction to go and scolding those that dawdle. As they pass through the glade, their heavy footfall on the vegetative floor thump-thump-thumps their presence as much as the vocalizations and the continued crushing of vegetation as they push by.

I can't get enough of their energy. They pull back frequently. No matter how many times I encounter them, Elk never cease to awe me.

Click through the comments below for some highlights!

Northwest Soundscapes

Queets River Valley Rainforest Dawn with Elk

A collection of demo tracks for Serum Nova II.

Metropolis - Max Legend

Decoding the Enigma - Paul Thomson

Ugasanie returns with his 5th album on Cryo Chamber. This time exploring the vast landscapes of Antarctica. 

The snowstorm builds on the horizon as the ice crackles under your feet. The faint call of someone beyond the blinding blizzard. 

A subdued and chilly album in the isolated style that is Ugasanie's expertise.

Ice Breath of Antarctica

Bandcamp

Ugasanie - Quiescency and Silence

Part of "Whisper of rain (album) '18"
BandCamp: https://svsh.bandcamp.com/album/whisper-of-rain-album-18

BandCamp

Prostotak

Delve deep into the visions of opera vocalist Agrathas spiritual nightmares, where suffering and madness gets comforted by the calm hand of the dark expanding universe. Halgrath is easiest described as Dark Ritual Ambient. With her hypnotic incantations reverberating through heavy textures the atmosphere is oozing with quality of production. 
Out of Time weaves a tale of souls lost in limbo, grasping to get back to reality, when their only outcome is to be discarded and shattered into pieces in the deep pits of non existance. 


Halgrath - 05 Horoathea Mass of Aegorath

Recorded in late May, 2018. Springtime dawn chorus in Minnesota's Chippewa National Forest.

Wolws Augustowska JAREK - MATUSIAK

jarekmatusiak

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MikeHoolboom

AudioFokus - Axel Mecke

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