What an incredible acoustic, and combination of elements. Totally transporting! 

a joy to listen to. all those rich textures, and then the echoing ravens.

Immersive and detailed. You brought me there.

Incredible. I never want to leave. This is the kind of soundscape i just want to lose myself in.

Nature 1

Recorded in primary rainforest at Sepilok Forest Reserve, Sabah, Malaysia.

This is an excerpt from a 27 minute track available at https://wildambience.com/albums/sepilok-rainforest-ambience/

Rainforest Ambience - Sepilok Forest Reserve

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Rainforest Ambience - Sepilok Forest Reserve, Sabah, Malaysia

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

Excerpt of a 12 minute track ' Song of the Lyrebird' from the recently released album "Bellbird Forest" https://wildambience.com/albums/bellbird-forest/

This track contains some superb examples of mimicry including the imitation of Yellow-tailed Black Cockatoo, Green Catbird, Satin Bowerbird, Grey Butcherbird and numerous other bird species. In fact, in this excerpt alone at least 10 species are mimicked.

Song of the Lyrebird

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Song of the Lyrebird - Excerpt from the Album "Bellbird Forest"

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

Braying outbursts of Wild Burros recorded at night next to Taylor Lake marsh in the Picacho State Recreation Area north of Yuma, Arizona. 6 April 2022. © Lang Elliott All Rights Reserved.

Note: This is a binaural soundscape. Please Wear Headphones for a natural, spacious sense of immersion.

Wild Burros of Picacho (with Coyote Finale)

NOTE: This is a binaural soundscape ... please listen using headphones! Otherwise, you may not appreciate the magic.

I always strive to keep my ears well-tuned, in order to perceive uplifting soundscapes that might easily escape notice, but sometimes I am not quite up to the task. Such was the case in late July of 2018.

I met up with two recording friends at one of my favorite wild areas … Shindagin Hollow in upstate New York, near where I live. We were very glad to see one another and immediately began chatting about this and that as we hooked up our recording equipment (they with parabolic reflectors and me with my binaural soundscape microphone). Then we dispersed, heading into the forest in different directions, each hoping to capture something of value.

It was then that I paused for a moment just to take in the scene … a foggy misty morning following a rainy night … the deep forest of hemlocks and hardwoods … drip from leaves in all directions … and subtle bird songs. I took a long slow breath and began to amble down the trail. At that moment, a wood thrush caught my attention, singing in the distance though quite clear. I stopped and listened more attentively … another was sounding off from even farther away, and a very faint one as well, unless I was just imagining it. And did I just hear a hermit thrush, buried in the mix?

Oh my, I almost did not notice … there, right next to the road, a lone ground cricket trilling prominently from the gravel. How could I have missed such an obvious sound? And then I detected a barred owl, hooting way off in the distance. And a mourning dove, just audible, cooing softly time and again.

Suddenly, I shook myself awake, finally aware of the miracle before me! The magic I was hoping to find somewhere down the trail was actually right next to me, fully and elegantly expressed! I did not need to walk down the trail in search of anything because nature was already showering me with an exalted mix, an elixir so pure and powerful that it thrilled my entire being, but only after I became fully receptive to it. Had I kept walking, I would have missed it entirely. Thank you wood thrush for breaking the spell of my self absorption, for unplugging my ears and inviting me into the here and now!

So finally I jumped into action … I quickly set up my soundscape mic, hit record, and prayed that nothing would interrupt this amazing concert so freely given. How careful we must be to keep our minds calm and quiet and our senses free of interference, so that we do not miss the extraordinary beauty that nature showers upon us, sometimes subtly, and often when we least expect it to arrive.

© Lang Elliott, Music of Nature. All Rights Reserved.

Thrush Dripscape

Exquisite dawn chorus featuring several Wood Thrushes sounding off at first light, with a gurgling brook nearby. Recorded at 5:15am, July 20, 2023 in Shindagin Hollow, near Brooktondale, New York. © Lang Elliott, musicofnature.com

Please listen with headphones!

Wood Thrushes Singing at Dawn with Stream Gurgle

Wood Thrushes Singing At Dawn with Stream Gurgle

Several Wood Thrushes sounding off at dusk with light rain falling. Recorded July 18, 2023 at 8:30pm. © Lang Elliott, musicofnature.com

Please listen with headphones!

Wood Thrushes Singing at Dusk in Light Rain

A natural symphony of frogs, insects, frogmouths (a type of nocturnal bird) and a distant Great Argus Pheasant recorded around midnight in Lambir Hills National Park, Sarawak, Malaysia.


Midnight in Borneo's Rainforest

Midnight in Borneo's Rainforest - Sarawak, Malaysia

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

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

It is late summer. We have just arrived at Felsenthal National Wildlife Refuge in southern Arkansas, a land of swamps and forest. At dusk, a thunderstorm passes by in the distance. The storm recedes, darkness prevails, and rain begins to fall.

We walk into a pine stand and sit quietly on a moss-covered log. Raindrops hit shrub leaves and plop softly upon the spongy bed of needles below. Crickets trill, their gentle songs are soothing to our ears. We close our eyes and allow the sounds to flow around and into us. So calm and peaceful, here in the pine woods, after the storm.

August 6, 2016 at 9pm. Felsenthal National Wildlife Refuge near Moro Bay, Arkansas.

Night Into Day

After the Storm

Note: This is a pure nature binaural soundscape. Please use headphones for an immersive 3D effect.

Visualization:

It is spring in the Appalachian Mountains of Virginia. We set up camp next to a small pond. At dusk, spring peepers sound off from the water's edge and a thunderstorm blows our way. Soon it is raining. We brave the elements to watch the lightning bolts, many of which have horizontal arms that reach across the sky.

The thunder seems to travel miles from its origins, gradually disappearing into the distance with striking variations of intensity along its paths. It as if giant boulders are rolling thunderously toward the horizon, their rumbles echoing off the surrounding hills.

May 4, 1996 at 7pm. George Washington National Forest, west of Staunton, Virginia. Recording © Lang Elliott.

Rolling Thunder

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.

Wind, Ravens, Reeds

Lang Elliott – Music of Nature

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