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Nature 1

During a mid-March visit to Big Bend National Park in Texas, I recorded this immersive binaural soundscape at dawn in Santa Elena Canyon. It features wind blowing through a dense thicket of Carrizo Cane (an invasive species from Asia that is now common along the Rio Grande), which produces clicks and clatters as gusts pass through the stiff, bamboo-like reeds. Ravens nest in the canyon and croak repeatedly as they fly up and down the Rio Grande River, their calls echoing off the steep cliffs above. Such a pleasing, enveloping mix of the sounds of the wind, ravens and reeds!. Please wear headphones for optimal immersion!

Recorded by Lang Elliott on March 17, 2021 shortly before sunrise. © Lang Elliott, All Rights Reserved.

Wind, Ravens, Reeds

Enjoy this engaging binaural recording featuring the variable plops and splats of water dripping from a bluff and landing on wet stones and in shallow pools. Listen also for the occasional musical trills of Eastern Screech-Owls. 

The "Grotto" is a limestone overhang found along a tributary of the Sabinal river in Lost Maples State Natural Area, located in the Hill Country of Texas. Please wear headphones! Recorded April 19, 2021 at around 11pm. © Lang Elliott. All Rights Reserved.

Grotto Drip 2021

Copyright Tai Inoue at Nature Sounds 2013

Solar Eclipse - 2013

Enjoy this lovely late winter dawn chorus recorded around 7am on March 30, 2022, in Shindagin Hollow, near Brooktondale NY. Various birds sound off against a backdrop of the gurgle of water flowing over beaver dams. Species heard include Blue Jay, Song Sparrow, Red-winged Blackbird, Common Grackle, Hairy Woodpecker, Mallard, and American Crow (and perhaps more that I didn't notice?). Temperature was around 28F with no wind.

© Lang Elliott, musicofnature.org

The Leading Edge of Spring

Spacious birdsong and forest ambience from a rarely visited area in Orissa state, eastern India. 

Kotagar forest ambience, Orissa, India

Winter Rally Stages 
Rally cars waiting to start stage

Recorded in
32bit 96khz audio-stereo

Photo: Harry Perkins

Full sets: aerobluesounds.bandcamp.com/

HD audio available to download

Original location recordings from the world of motor racing.
High quality recordings with minimal background distractions.

Ideal for High-Resolution listening.

Rally Cars - waiting to start stage

MOCKINGBIRD NIGHT SONG: A Northern Mockingbird singing at night with crickets and gray treefrogs sounding off in the background. Recorded 11:30pm 27 May 2016, near Upperville, Virginia. © Lang Elliott.

Microphone: quasi-binaural SASS (Stereo Ambient Sampling System) modified for use with Sennheiser MKH20 microphones.

THE NORTHERN MOCKINGBIRD is well-known for its habit of singing at night. What most folks do not know is that the night-singers are primarily unmated males, which may sing almost continuously both day and night (especially when the moon is bright), in their quest to locate a mate.

I managed to capture the featured recording during a recent expedition, which began with a social event: my partner’s niece was graduating from high school and we went down to attend the ceremony. Given how close we were to Washington D.C., I never imagined that I would get a usable recording (too many cars and jets). But we spent the night in a ranch house surrounded by large fields, and as luck would have it, there was a resident mockingbird that sang throughout much of the night.

Resisting my urge to get some much-needed sleep (I was up until nearly 2am the night before, recording frogs), I ventured out around 11pm and walked a considerable distance to his singing tree, which was at the edge of a field. Crickets trilled gently from the grass and a chorus of Gray Treefrogs produced a drone from nearby forest, no doubt sounding off from a pond or swampy area. Not a bad catch for countryside near a major metropolis.

Although not exactly a meditative recording, I am quite pleased to document night-singing in this species, along with enough ambient sounds to add spaciousness to the recording. This particular singer is doing some imitations, but the majority of his phrases seem to be of his own device. Rather than analyze his song phrases, I’ve chosen to simply enjoy the soundscape without thinking too much about it. Mockingbird Nightsong, delivered to you on a golden platter!

What’ya think?

Mockingbird Nightsong

Light rain with the sounds of blue jays and spring peepers. Recorded 5 September 2017 at 10 am in Shindagin Hollow near Ithaca New York.

This is a remarkably immersive binaural 3D field recording that is best appreciated by listening over headphones. The raindrops provide a wide, relaxing soundstage against which blue jays sound off with a variety of nasal sounds and jay-calls. Occasionally spring peepers give brief series' of bird-like peeps ... their "autumn piping" from trees and shrubs, often occurring quite far from their breeding pools and ponds.

In my appraisal, this lovely soundscape cradles one's spirit  and promotes a sense of calm freshness ... such a gentle soundscape that will instantly transport you into the wild (especially if you listen using headphones or earbuds).

When I make a recording such as this, I remember exactly why I do this kind of work.

For a more detailed discussion of this recording, please check out my blog post: https://musicofnature.com/light-rain-and-blue-jays/

Rain and Blue Jays

A Coqui chorus from Puerto Rico, recorded next to a small forest stream. Early am, 22 March 2013. El Yunque National Forest, Puerto Rico. An immersive binaural soundscape recording ... please listen using headphones.

NOTE: This is one of a series of recordings I made during the night of March 21-22, as I hiked up the south slopes of El Yunque National Forest in the dead of the night. At first I was overwhelmed by the choruses ... they were much too cacophonous to suit my fancy. But at higher altitudes in the wee hours of the morning, things settled down and I got some very nice mixtures of sounds ... magical and hypnotic soundscapes that soothed my mind and drew me effortlessly and completely into my natural surroundings, erasing any thoughts of the outside world.

Coqui Frogs — Forest Stream

The arrival of a thunderstorm at the edge of a meadow in upstate New York. A light rain falls and thunder rumbles as the storm moves by. Two Snowy Tree Crickets call from nearby shrubs, their repeated trills given in almost perfect unison. How relaxing, but beware … this soundscape may put you right to sleep.

Recorded binaurally at 11pm, 21 September, 2011. Connecticut Hill Wildlife Mangement Area near Ithaca, New York.

Thunder Crickets

Here is a lovely 6.5 minute soundscape that I just uncovered … two Wood Thrushes singing back-and-forth at dawn, recorded at Land Between the Lakes Kentucky way back in 1995, about the time I began gathering binaural soundscapes. I rather like it and think it’s a powerful reminder of things to come Yep, SPRING is just around the corner. Believe me!

It’s a busy dawn chorus for sure, but if played at a medium to low sound level, it’s fairly gentle on the ears. The recording also features the incessant singing of distant Whip-poor-wills, Barred Owls hooting, Mourning Doves cooing, a woodpecker drumming (probably a Hairy Woodpecker), and plenty more species for the discerning ear.

Wood Thrushes Countersinging

This 24-minute wonderfully immersive binaural recording features a mid-winter windstorm with gusting and light snow in a dense stand of Norway Spruce. I set my soundscape microphone near a small meltwater stream. Listen for the gentle gurgle of the brook (revealed when the wind subsides)set against windy intervals where at times you can hear the crackle of spruce limbs hitting one another as the trees bend and sway. Listen also for the deep low-frequency rumble made by the wind roaring over and down the mountainside.

Recorded 2pm, 28 February 2018 in Shindagin Hollow near Brooktondale, New York.

Winter Windstorm

This album is our 100th Listening Earth album release, and to celebrate this milestone, we're returning to one of our most evocative nature recordings from the last 25 years.

In the small hours of the morning, a full moon illuminates a large waterhole at the entrance to Ormiston Gorge, in outback Australia. The landscape all around is epic and ancient; massive quartzite rock walls are silhouetted above sandy banks lined with pale-barked gum trees.

This permanent waterhole is a haven for wildlife, and here we listen into the night. A gentle breeze occasionally whispers through the leaves of the old ghost gums, while crickets chirrup from small reedbeds.

Subtle sounds come from all around, but the mesmerising focus is a Pied Butcherbird. It roosts unseen in a tree opposite, singing gracefully. 

The song of the Pied Butcherbird is renowned as being among the most musical in the avian world. But now, in the depths of the night, this bird is singing slowly, serenely, languidly, as though half asleep. And in this place, surrounded by an amphitheatre of rock, its voice echoes - one of nature's most sublime songs in a natural cathedral.

Listening Earth Album Sample

The Pied Butcherbirds of Ormiston Gorge

Pied Butcherbirds of Ormiston Gorge: Album Sample

Winter Rain in Oak Forest. Recorded January 1, 2021 near Ithaca, New York. Featuring raindrops hitting surrounding snow, flattened leaves, and icy patches. © Lang Elliott, musicofnature.com

Winter Rain

Hi Friends! I am a professional nature recordist who travels to wild areas throughout North America and sometimes beyond. My current focus is to gather  immersive binaural 3D soundscapes that effortlessly transport listeners (using headphones) into nature and have a positive and healing effect on the mind, body and spirit.

Thunder Crickets

Lang Elliott – Music of Nature

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