(Best listened to with good quality headphones, in a quiet environment, at low to mid volume. Be warned: the dynamics occasionally explode, particularly in the form of Black-winged Currawongs.)

This recording is an early result of experimenting with a pair of omnidirectional and a pair of supercardioid microphones in parallel. The omnis absorb the environing atmospheric ambience, the supercardioids capture a selective and narrower focus of detail. (No processing.)

2023.01.08 Awakening Pine Forest. First Light. Summer.

Here is an invitation to a free auditory flight through time and space, following the enigmatic 'winter call' of the visually unassuming yet acoustically versatile and - more familiarly - melodiously lyrical Grey Shrike-thrush. I first heard/recorded the Grey Shrike-thrush's quite uncharacteristic 'winter call' in 2018 (the first clip in this compilation). At that time, I had no clue as to the identity of the bird that uttered that call. It was a few years later that I serendipitously came across a discussion forum on Xeno-Canto concerning a recording of an unidentified Australian bird call that finally resolved the matter for me. I learned - to my surprise - that this was the 'winter call' of the Grey Shrike-thrush. I definitely have many more such 'winter calls' embedded in numerous past recordings; these are just a few for which I could find the time to seek out, select, and edit.

At first, I was going to do the obvious, and began compiling a set of short clips of these calls. But listening to a mere series of short clips was somehow utterly meaningless. It gave no sense of particular places, spaces, locations, environments, seasons, moods; there was no audible, auditory, soundscape context at all. So, I started afresh, and included a generous span of soundscape context for each of these calls, recorded at different times in different places. This makes for a much longer track, but a much richer and more meaningful auditory experience and understanding.

Most of these excerpts(with very few exceptions) are to some extent tainted with anthropogenic noise. Inevitably, and sadly, this is also real part of the real-world story. Everywhere, everywhen, conscious, intelligent, communicating, non-human beings - and human beings, too, of course - are challenged by an ever-increasing extent and volume of post-Industrial-Revolution noise.

00:00     1.  2018.04.10 Horsnell Gully Conservation Park (early morning)

00:43     GS winter call

00:57     2.  2021.01.26 Scott Creek Conservation Park (2 days after severe bushfire (malicious act of arson)) (late morning)

01:31     GS winter call

02:04     3.  2022.03.27 Ferries McDonald Conservation Park (early morning)

02:57     GS winter call

04:06     GS winter call

05:26     GS winter call

05:42     [GS? (hybrid winter/song call?)]

06:00     GS (typical song call)

06:23     GS winter call (variant)

06:55     GS winter call

07:15     4.  2023.02.19 Gluepot Reserve (early morning)

07:49     GS winter call

08:14     5.  2023.04.02 Private bushland, pastoral region (near Mount Compass) (early morning)

09:07     GS winter call

09:44     GS winter call

10:08     GS winter call (partial, faint)

10:24     GS winter call

11:28     GS winter call (variant)

12:00     6.  2023.04.21 Private bushland, suburban/industrial region (Adelaide Hills) (afternoon)

13:36     GS winter call

13:57     7.  2023.05.27 Private bushland, suburban/industrial region (Adelaide Hills) (late morning)

14:18     GS (typical song call, faint)

14:20     [GS? (hybrid/variant of winter call?)]

15:01     GS winter call

15:46     GS winter call

16:07     End of recording

Track photo credit: Michael Jury, Grey Shrike-thrush (Colluricincla harmonica), 09/09/2019 Innamincka National Park, https://www.mykelphotography.com.au/latest-trips-and-adventures-41

2018-2023 Grey Shrike-thrush Winter Calls Compilation

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Exploring hearing, the hearable, and the hearer, as an event, a mode, and a dimension of Βeing (τὸ εἶναι).
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Playlists = albums and collections.
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New tracks tagged #Natural-Anthropogenic Hybrid Spaces