Road Trip To Tokyo

Mellow Beats

For many more unique and engaging elk vocalizations, feel free to message me for The Private Playlist.

A short representative collection of elk (and a few birds) from a recent expedition. These are all excerpts from the same 3.5 hour recording on the morning of September 18, starting pre-dawn. It was rutting season in the Colockum Wildlife area, and just before the start of open hunting season, so the males were out, about, and vocal. These are raw tracks, down-mixed to stereo (from double-m/s), normalized to -23 LUFS and down-sampled to 48k with no other filtering.
Geophony: The Colockum is a high plateau on the eastern side of the Casade Mountain range between Wenatchee and Ellensburg, WA. With steep drainage-carved ravines, dry grass, rolling hills, and scarce water, it is a difficult, rough terrain. Abundant Ponderosa Pine, Spruce, and some Firs provide variably-dense stands for the elk's bugling to echo from. A mighty wind storm had blown through during the night, with some occasional gusting still noticeable in the trees.
Anthrophony: None in these recordings
Biphony: Elk, mostly bulls bugling, screaming, roaring, whistling, and chirping. Occasional high-pitched mews from the cows can be heard. Some morning birds are present also, including jays, ravens, chickadees, and a woodpecker. There may be a squirrel present.

image credit: NorthwestSoundscapes, LLC

Elk Collection

"The human spirit needs places where nature has not been rearranged by the hand of man."

The Trees Talk Too

A long soundscape across Dawn in the Queets River Valley rainforest of the Olympic National Park. Starting in Astronomical Twilight, a small herd of Roosevelt Elk walks in from a distance, though a small forest glade, an away towards the Queets River bed.

Early Autumn rainfall and dropping Maple Leaves are the dominant sounds to begin, their pak-pak-spaks are a reminder that time passes, even in the still quiet of a moss-covered forest.

Highway 101 in less than 12 miles away, and distant traffic is funneled up the Valley, showing the difficulty of escaping human-generated sound. This has been mitigated somewhat with light processing, but close listening and inspection will make remnants evident. There are no other edits or processes committed.

I love the crisp cold air of the rainforests in the fall. Sounds, natural and human generated, carry into the distant. Tucked into my sleeping bag, I lay back in my small tent, listening to the forest awaken. Where once there was just the soft distant wash of the river, the elk are joined by the local birds. Steller's Jays shriek their song with grating-yet-amusing "CHA-CHA-CHA-CHAs". A Northern Saw-whet toots in the forest canopy. Young Varied Thrush practice their songs, not quite reaching the beautiful and haunting signature fluting of their predecessors, instead emitting a silly buzzer-bell-like noise. Pacific Wren singing at the end of their season and the occasional Kingfisher make an appearance as well. Noe of these complete with the sheer vibrance of the elk.

Roosevelt Elk or Roosevelt's Wapiti or Rainforest Elk are the largest remaining elk species in North America and thrive in shadowy silences of the Pacific Northwest's temperate rainforests. Bull's bugles and roars echo through the trees, becoming one of the signature sounds of the Olympic Mountains. The cows mew and squeal in return, listening for one another to not wander far astray.

The small herd is a tight-nit family group, a with one, maybe two, dominant bulls, five or six cows in their harem, and a handful of young. The dominant bull leads the group on a daily hike, down from the upper valley to the river and back again. Their bugles urge the group, both signaling the direction to go and scolding those that dawdle. As they pass through the glade, their heavy footfall on the vegetative floor thump-thump-thumps their presence as much as the vocalizations and the continued crushing of vegetation as they push by.

I can't get enough of their energy. They pull back frequently. No matter how many times I encounter them, Elk never cease to awe me.

Click through the comments below for some highlights!

Northwest Soundscapes

Queets River Valley Rainforest Dawn with Roosevelt Elk

J-Dilla/Slum Village - Fall In Love (Instrumental)

Roosevelt Elk, or Rainforest Elk or Olympic Elk, selected from a brief trip in late September 2023.

Recorded in the Queets and Quinalt Rainforest River Valleys, there's often an unavoidable distant wash of river in the background, so each example is very lightly processed with the unprocessed source immediately following.

I record elk by leaving recorders out in the field where herds are known to migrate. Occasionally I'm able to follow a herd and record more direct, but I do not want to alarm the herd or stress them unnecessarily, so I often avoid this method.

Bugles are multi-toned calls that start low and transition into a scream. During the rut season, Bulls use this to express dominance over other males, warding off potential rivals, and attract potential mates. Outside of the rut they will often bugle when leading a herd.

Chuckles, or laughs, sound just like that, a series of short loud grunts. Like bugles, chuckles are used as a form of dominance and attraction call. I've often heard them used when a bull is specifically calling his harem to gather. They'll produce chuckles on their own, or sometimes tag them onto the end of a bugle.

image credit: "Roosevelt Elk Bugling-Unknown" by Forest Service Pacific Northwest Region is marked with Public Domain Mark 1.0. To view the terms, visit https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/?

Roosevelt Elk Bugle

Roosevelt Elk (aka Rainforest Elk or Olympic Elk) bulls challenging for social dominance hours after sunset in late September 2023.

Elk live in a fairly well-defined, yet fluid, social hierarchy. Only the biggest or strongest bulls earn the right to mate, so the competition during the female's estrus season is intense. Bulls earn their harem by exerting dominance over other bulls in their territory, either by driving them off or just scaring them off. When a challenger thinks they have what it takes to become the dominant bull they stray into that bull's territory and issue their challenge. If accepted (and it always is), what results is a fierce clash of massive bodies and sharp antlers pushing and shoving until one bull gives in. The battle leaves scars on the ground in the form of huge gashes where antlers and cloven hooves gouged the field and shattered tree branches were flung in the fury.

Recorded in the Quinalt Rainforest River Valley, there's an unavoidable distant wash of river in the background. In addition, there had been a heavy rain event just days before. The river was rushing fairly hard as a result, so the below recording is very lightly processed to reduce the influence of that noise. The unprocessed source immediately follows if you want to hear the difference.

I record elk by leaving recorders out in the field where herds are known to migrate. Occasionally I'm able to follow a herd and record more direct, but I do not want to alarm the herd or stress them unnecessarily, so I try to avoid this method.

Bugles are multi-toned calls that start low and transition into a scream. During the rut season, Bulls use this to express dominance over other males, warding off potential rivals, and attract potential mates. Outside of the rut they will often bugle when leading a herd.

Chuckles, or laughs, sound just like that, a series of short loud grunts. Like bugles, chuckles are used as a form of dominance and attraction call. You'll often hear them used when a bull is specifically calling his harem to gather. They produce chuckles on their own, or sometimes tag them onto the end of a bugle.

image: A magnificent and iconic Big Leaf Maple, taken the following day narthex scene of the battle.

Listen to more bugling and chuckling from this trip in the full playlist here: https://on.soundcloud.com/exa6D

Listen to an early morning soundscape in the nearby Queets Rainforest with a resident herd of Roosevelt Elk wandering through on their daily route here:
https://on.soundcloud.com/sJFsX

Roosevelt Elk Bull challenge with big clashing fight

Roosevelt Elk Bugle with low chesty roar

One of my favorite Dilla beats... 
Just Beutiful

J Dilla - Yesterday

Andie Case cover of "I Think I'm In Love" by Kat Dahlia

Kat Dahlia - I Think I'm In Love

Lil Rob  - Summer nights

80KIDZ / Two Three
from "Baby EP"
2015.09.16.wed OUT!

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80KIDZ / Two Three (preview)

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One Note - Single

One Note

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Written, Performed, Recorded and Produced By: The Palms
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Sway

Breakin Up

Lady Antebellum - Need You Now (Cover Feat. J Shin)

California Sunrise

Night Shift

I spent another weekend in the Colockum Wildlife Area, camping at the border of Coffin Game Reserve for the last week of silence before firearm hunting season begins. The elk were particularly active, perhaps they knew what was coming and were trying to get everything out of life that they could.

The cows make mewling cry that I use think was from the young. The farther away a bull's bugle is heard in the distance, the more hillside and forest reverberation swallows it, the more musical and majestic it becomes.

The herd never really settles long in one spot and is constantly on the move. Distant recordings like this are thus the easiest and most common to make. Not long after dawn the herd had mostly moved away from my camp.

Elk Bugling Bulls With Cows In The Distance

"..for its next instalment Scrub A Dub signed yet another track from Egoless.."
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SCRUB014

Read our review

Egoless - Bubble Beat [duploc.com premiere]

Discover Belgium producer BaaskaT(@baaskaT-beats) and his chilled beats "Bittersweet".

His new EP Flickshots & Quickscopes is out now via @chillhopdotcom.

Bandcamp - https://chillhop.bandcamp.com/album/flickshots-quickscopes
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Flickshots & Quickscopes

BaaskaT - Bittersweet

Reflection Eternal -  Nujabes

🎧Stream/Download » https://chillhop.ffm.to/silience.ODL

🌊Toonorth is back with another mellow production that showcases his signature sound full of nostalgia, laid back melodies and crisp drums.

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Age  beat by illmore

Energy Dreams

Purple T Shirts

Clout Chaser pt.4

Stargazer

Home By 11 PM

Lemon Wedge in the Sky

Snaxx

Papayaberry

our new playlist: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/1la2NHrMKqHtzrewaAJ46Q?si=IF2-KZHcSOGyLggYgP15cw

new one from the uber talented Leavv! Hope you enjoy.

@leavv

Leavv - Far Away

as a return for my birthday, here's an ep that i was looking forward to put out. lots of people seemed to enjoy these tracks when they were teased on twitter, discord, soundcloud, facebook, etc. so i decided to give them a release already and put a end to the wait. happy 17th birthday to me i guess <3

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STOP MOTION

Reminisce

Reminisce (feat. Alfa Mist & Marcus Tenney)

Hot Water

Carpet

What Color Is The Sky

What Color Is the Sky

In The Morning

City of light

I'm looking for dance clips for New Single "DT pt.3" MV!
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DT pt.3

Collab with @odyssee_lc

Artwork by Vince Blok

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ØDYSSEE x Glimlip - Umlati

buy 7" Vinyl

En Rie X Ufa Palava - Dusted

3rd single from my upcoming Album "FIGUB HADZI-YUSUF"

Figub Hadzi-Yusuf

Fainting Of Rejection (feat. Sixcube)

Figub Brazlevic - 05 - Fainting Of Rejection (feat. Sixcube)

Field Recordist / Sound designer
Shhhhh. Listening to nature.

To license sounds or for all other inquiries: info@andymartinsound.com

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Elk Bugling Bulls With Cows In The Distance

Andy Martin, Field Recordist