Version 4 of the rainshield implements an excellent suggestion with respect to materials that was very kindly and generously offered by Gerwin Meijer. This recording is my first attempt to implement Gerwin's recommendation, and  gets very close to what I have been aiming for. Although the rainfall was only very light, it was enough to let me know that one further step was needed.

In Version 5, I refined and improved the arrangement still more, and I feel that I may have arrived at a more or less final satisfactory version of this rainshield design. I am very grateful to Gerwin for his crucial contribution to this process.

This recording was made respectfully on land that was originally the home country of the Ngadjuri and Danggali peoples.

2025.12.06  Rainshield Version 4 (Excerpt).

47 Eno said 2

Listen back to our shows from Lyon and the World, as broadcasted on December 18th on www.lyl.live
More infos via our website.
Enjoy our hosts' madnesses!

Tocca il Futuro (18.12.2025)

Inscape is a space that doesn't exist outside. It's a room that only I inhabit.

Inside each of us, there are many inner spaces. Not just a hidden place, but thresholds, rooms, volumes — each with its own light, its own climate, a distinct color, a unique acoustic dimension. Some of these places are familiar to me: I’ve frequented them for as long as I can remember, often without even noticing. Others remain undefined, blurry, as if they lived on the edges of perception — yet I know they exist, and that they belong to me.
These spaces are never completely sealed off. Even when I retreat inside them, they remain in dialogue with the outside world: they let in fragments of light, distant echoes, voices, faces impossible to forget. The real world doesn’t disappear — it transforms as it passes through them, filtered, refracted, absorbed.
At times, these spaces protect me. At others, they help me rebuild the sense of who I am.

inscape // violet_space

The first of two samples from a recording made with Version 5 of my rainshield, following a refined and improved implementation of an extremely helpful suggestion, with respect to materials, that was offered very kindly and generously by Gerwin Meijer. Thank you, Gerwin! I think that your recommendation has been the needed catalyst that has eased me over the finishing line, and I'm now no longer 'working ON' the rainshield, but actually 'working WITH' it...

Recorded respectfully and joyfully in the country of the Ngarrindjeri peoples (and specifically, on the land and waters of the Ramindjeri clan) at dawn on 21st December 2025 (summer solstice).

2025.12.21 Rainshield Version 5 (Excerpt 1)

Beaver Moans and Cave Drip - 5min 24sec
May 10, 2024, 11pm. Round Spring State Park, north of Eminence, Missouri. Recorded by Lang Elliott.

In the Ozark region of southern Missouri, Round Spring wells up into a large sinkhole, surrounded by steep forested slopes on all sides. The water is a vivid blue and flows out through a cavelike passageway at one end, emerging about a hundred feet away to form the headwaters of a large creek that meanders a short distance before flowing into the Current River.

With some effort, I am able to place my soundscape microphone a few feet into the cave, where drips from the ceiling and walls make resounding plops, plinks, and snaps as they strike water and stones below. I record the dripping sounds for several hours (see “Cave Drip” track). Then, at 11pm, something unexpected happens. 

I start hearing the mournful moans and whines, and later the chewing sounds, of two American Beaver. What a delight! Earlier in the day, I had seen beaver swimming in the creek below. with one heading upstream and disappearing into the cavern. Apparently, the beaver have a den inside the cave, or at least a bed of tree stems and small limbs from which they feed.

A Note from Lang:

Round Spring is a circular pool about a hundred feet across and 55 feet deep. The water flow is enormous—about 26 million gallons per day! The cavelike passageway is nearly twenty feet wide, but only two feet high at the entrance.

Beaver Moans and Cave Drip

Wet Gloppy Snowfall. Recorded February 2, 2016, 10am. Connecticut Hill Wildlife Management Area, near Ithaca, New York. © Lang Elliott.

It is early February in the Finger Lakes region of upstate New York. What begins as an idyllic snowstorm, with large, delicate snowflakes falling slowly and gently to the ground, quickly transforms as the temperature rises to well above freezing. The snowflakes begin melting before they hit the ground, turning into wet globs that splatter and smack as they strike the leaf litter. Such a unique, energetic soundscape, lying halfway between snowfall and rain!

A Note from Lang: 

As always, recording rain is a challenge. In this case, I used my homemade rain setup, which consists of an open, cuboid frame wrapped in speaker cloth, with a thick layer of absorbent filters set on top. The goal, of course, was to record only the sounds made by the wet snow striking the leaf litter, while avoiding any sounds caused by melting snow hitting the mic frame itself or the absorbent filters above.

Wet Gloppy Snowfall

Recorded February 15-16, 2021 at Wolf Mountain Nature Center near Smyrna, New York. © Lang Elliott.

I recorded throughout the night and this is a compilation of my best cuts of howling wolves, carefully sequenced for your listening pleasure. A gentle wintertime gurgling brook ambience has been added.

Note: These are not wild wolves—they are the result of captive breeding programs at various locations across the continent. Wolf Mountain Nature Center is a registered 501c3 non-profit. The wolves are lovingly cared for by Wil Pryor (the Director) and the staff.

47 Eno said 2

MikeHoolboom

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