Recorded around dusk on 11.2.16 this is a selection of audio scenes from the Ted Ellis Nature reserve (Wheatfen) in Surlingham Norfolk.

A last minute decision to record paid off handsomnly!

Wheatfen Scenes

For several months in 2016 I was unable to drive which meant I had to take the train from Norwich to Saxmundham (near where I was working). The joys of not having to communte and seeing the early morning world from a warm train were voluminous. This recording is from the connecting train between Ipswich and Sax; a single carriage branch line traveling very slowly between stations with few punters. The reason for sharing this recording is that on this occasion the train began singing to me in a  way I have not heard before or since. At the time I was playing a lot of accordion and the resonance between the breathy dancing motion of the train and the push/pull of the squeezebox was a gilded treasure.

The route is here;
https://goo.gl/maps/33pXa3pBqMn

The Singing Train

This is a Binaural recording made on the path to Tower Hide at Strumpshaw Fen, Norfolk, UK. After walking the reserve on my own, starting at dawn, making a number of recordings I came upon a tunneled section of path. I was fully immersed in my soundwalk and the inspiration came to test my Binaural mics, a type of recording I am completely new to.

Recorded using Luhd PM-01 Binarual Mics and a Sony PCM-D100 recorder.

Strumpshaw Fen - Path To Tower Hide - Binaural

On my walk around Strumpshaw I came out of a patch of Ward's Carr and followed a path running along the edge of a reed bed. The path rose gently up to a right hand turn overlooking the River Yare. I made my way along the river path, heard the warbler in the reeds, lay down on my belly and crept closer...

Reed Warbler - Strumpshaw Fen - 6.5.17

Strumpshaw Fen - Reed Warbler

Strumpshaw Fen - Dawn Chorus

Recorded from a bench overlooking Markham's Carr at Strumpshaw Fen. I didn't notice the Cuckoo until listening back...

Overlooking Markham's Carr

Invocation Of The Marsh Frogs - Eugene Skeef/Robert Malpas

This track was recorded during a dawn trip to Minsmere in July 2017. I was testing a homemade AB stereo mic setup. Surprisingly the gear stayed remarkably reliable. 

Close in among the long grass, straddling the ditch between the reserve and the beach dunes, the power of the sea is evident. As is the constant chattering from the reserve itself. A picturesque flight-path, close to the airport itself...

Amongst The Beach Grass At Minsmere

The passing of a summer storm recorded at Barnham Broom in Norfolk, UK. This is a section from the second of 3 thunderstorms I've recorded across the summer of 2018. I love the change. I love the single crack of thunder, the confident soloist and the synchronous wood pigeons.

From One To Another

It is ironic that at this time of human quiet I should find myself recording the agricultural biomass generator at a nearby farm. I don't know whether it is because I miss this industrial backdrop to my morning walk or that the noise of the generator is amplified by the quiet that now surrounds it (its position in the local noise league tables has jumped), or that my morning walk just ended up there. 

Whichever, its pneumatic throb and weakly grinding metalicism competing with the now more confident bird-life seemed an apt reflection of current debates around the environmental impacts of the Covid-19 outbreak. 

I don't miss the sound of the generator, but the journey to an acceptance of more natural soundscapes cannot be built on shock tactics, and it is not paved with sensory rapture, but must involve us recognising and dealing with a need to create noise to feel safe. Industrialisation has, for some, drowned out some of the sound terrors we have fought for millennia. Some sound terrors will remain, and some, like Covid-19, are silenced to us by their size.

An Outbreak Of Unquiet.WAV

A short recording of the Barnham Broom Dawn Chorus (at least the one at the junction of Spur road/Norwich road) made on the 21st April around 5am.

It's recorded in binaural format which means best listened to on headphones, but works fine on regular speakers.

Barnham Broom Dawn Chorus - Binaural

I am a Field Recordist based in Norwich, UK. I am particularly interested in employing Field Recording as an educational and therapeutic creative art.

Martin Scaiff

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