This soundscape composition is dedicated to the Leipzig ornithologist Jochen Schmidt who passed away in December 2015 after a long battle against cancer.

Jochen Schmidt devoted much of his life to the protection of the Common Crane and the “Wildenhainer Bruch” a habitat in the north of Leipzig.

Thank you.

RECORDED – 2014, Wildenhainer Bruch, Germany
PRODUCED – 2016, Leipzig, Germany
ARTWORK – Nicole Christ

Für Jochen Schmidt

Field recordists tend to invest the recordings they make with local specificity and the places, at which they record their sounds, with an aural identity.
When I visited the Greifswalder Oie, an island in the southern Baltic Sea, for the first time in 2008, it seemed to me that there wasn’t another place like it. I heard, with an unprecedented intensity, sounds in a density I had never experienced before.
During the following years I visited the island again and again, trying to capture its aural identity. The better I got to know the place, the more I grew conscious of the fact that nothing on it was actually truly unique. Neither the sound of the rescue vessel stationed there, nor those of the generator located at the port, of a certain hedge ruffled by high winds, of the breakers on the rocks or of the cormorant roost sound specific to someone who has not yet been on Greifswalder Oie.
And when I myself listen to my recordings, they evoke first and foremost my own moods, conditions or the particular situations connected to them.
The recordings selected here make no claim to be an acoustic portrait of the island or of its varied history and present.
credits
released November 10, 2017

RECORDED – 2010/2016 at Greifswalder Oie
PRODUCED – 2016 in Leipzig, Germany
MASTERING – Manuel G. Richter, Leaf Audio
TRANSLATION: Alexander Schneider

Undertow

West Coast

Since attentively listening and recording sound became a major part of my life, the phenomenon of the wind has emerged as a favourite subject – with the exception of course of bird sound! In fact, from childhood I have loved the gruff character of an autumn storm and immersing myself in the powerful complex sound moving through the landscape.

Whether it is purely for the pleasure of listening to the wind resonating on vegetation, geological formations, water and man made structures, or taking up the challenge of making a sound recording that reproduces the pure listening experience as accurately as possible, vwindy or stormy places are always worth to be there.

During recent years, two kinds of place have become my focus: ships and the baltic coast of north-eastern Germany. Regular work and field trips gave me plenty of opportunities to study wind in all kinds of forms and explore ways to record its sound.

As a listener, I prefer subtly changing, complex bodies of sounds, so have decided to publish this selection, even though it may initially appear a little unattractive to listen to umpteen minutes of rather harsh sounds – even to the dedicated listener.

I recommend to listening to these tracks on speakers and at a moderate level, even though some of the sounds may be tempting to listen to with the volume turned up. I hope these recordings will encourage you to go out and immerse yourself in the landscape, to discover the the sonic character of different places and their specific ways to resonate wind
- in case you aren’t already addicted to it, like me.

This release is dedicated to Bert Röhner who brought the approach of thinking of sound as a three-dimensional sculpture into my life. 
credits
released March 3, 2022

PRODUCED – 2020 in Leipzig, Germany
MASTERING – Manuel G. Richter, Leaf Audio
TRANSLATION – Mark Wilkinson
ARTWORK – arc

Attic

Flying Bridge

Common Reed

vocalisation: song flight
other species: Eurasian Woodcock, Siberian Rubythroat
date: 24/06/2023

PFR22585 – Solitary Snipe, song flight – Mongolia

vocalisation: song
other species: Red-flanked Bluetail, Common Cuckoo, Olive-backed Pipit
date: 08/06/2023

PFR21750 – Black-bellied Capercaillie, male, song – Mongolia

vocalisation: howling
other species: I don't know, some nervous passerines
date: 25/12/2021

PFR18843 – Eurasian Wolf, pack, howling – Germany

vocalisation: song
other species: -
date: 10/08/2019

PFR15730 - aquatic insects – Germany

vocalisation: song
other species: Vega Gull, Eurasian Hoopoe, Blyth's Pipit
date: 28/05/2013

PFR09002 -  Isabelline Wheatear, male, song – Mongolia

vocalisation: song flight, song
other species: Siberian Rubythroat, Pallas's Grasshopper Warbler, Common Snipe, Japanese Quail, Grey Nightjar, humans
date: 18/06/2023

PFR22402 - Swinhoe's Snipe, song flight, song – Mongolia

vocalisation: song flight, song
other species: Siberian Rubythroat, Common Quail
date: 31/05/2024

PFR24167 – Pin-tailed Snipe, song flight, song – Mongolia

Whilst validating and sorting amphibian sound recordings over the past few days, I was very surprised to come across recordings of a species I thought I had never encountered before: Pool Frog Phylophelax lessonae.

PFR04631 - Pool Frog, advertising call and call - Germany

Greek Tortoise courtship - the male pursues the potential mate, repeatedly bumping into her shell. After climbing up, he puts one leg out and utters pressed calls.
As you would expect, this ritual takes place slowly and over a long period of time...

PFR23341 - Greek Tortoise, courtship - Azerbaijan

Not 100% sure about the ID. Please let me know if it is wrong 🙏

PFR23389 - Sphingonotus savignyi, advertising song - Azerbaijan

Eurasian cuckoo species of the genus Cuculus use quite a number of vocalisations. The best known are probably the male and female song - the latter often referred to as the ‘bubble call’.
The large number of vocalisations and variations suggest an equally large number of messages encoded in them.

species:
Oriental Cuckoo, Common Cuckoo, Black-billed Capercaillie, Tree Pipit, Olive-backed Pipit, Red-throated Thrush, Mistle Thrush, Hume's Leaf Warbler, Willow Tit, Pine Bunting, ...

PFR24179 - Oriental Cuckoo, M F song, excitement calls - Mongolia

The Pallas' Leaf Warbler is certainly one of the most beautiful leaf warblers of the Western Palearctic. Coveted in Europe as a rare and exceptional species during migration, few European people come into contact with its song. Yet its complex song is just as attractive and at the same time little studied.
In Asia, on the other hand, the bird is common and therefore receives much less attention. Here it is simply one species within the large variation of leaf warblers, which, in contrast to the European representatives, almost all have complex songs.
species in background: Blyth's Pipit, Isabelline Shrike, Common Rock Thrush, Pacific Swift, Eurasian Tree Sparrow, domestic horses

PFR07774 - Pallas' Leaf Warbler, M song, Mongolia

Patrick Franke – Field biologist & recordist
Vice-chairman Wildlife Sound Recording Society
Board-member Finch Research Network
🇮🇱

Singwarte Media

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