Field Recordings

“There are three churches within earshot of the spot where this recording was made, in the Swiss village of Flüeli-Ranft, and their bells overlap but do not synchronise. A local told me that this is intentional, to ensure their distinct timbres can be clearly distinguished.

I was reminded of a wonderful Swiss film I saw earlier this year, Unrest, set in a 19th Century mountain town in which four marginally different time zones are observed simultaneously: one for the factory, one for the train station, one for the post office, and one for the church.

When all three churches fell silent, I was lucky enough to capture another set of bells—those worn by a herd of cows, invisible to me from my perch above the village stream—until the entire scene was drowned out by an overhead plane.”

“A traditional Ukrainian Koliada song – traditionally sung house to house, like a Christmas carol.  This group of Montreal Koliada singers rehearsing for the Christmas season was founded by Natalia Telentso and Eli Camilo, of the band Murmurosi.”

“We keep a beehive, just the one in our back garden in Flitwick, Bedfordshire. we are about as far from any coast that you can get in the country, to my eternal disappointment. We are in our third year and on our second colony. The first perished in the winter. This one is a swarm that moved into the empty hive. They have been quite productive with honey though, but also producing three swarms of their own. They can also be a bit feisty when working with them!

Usually they are hunkered down by this time of year, but with the unseasonable weather and temperatures, the girls are still foraging and returning laden with pollen. Also we are still having regular emergences, indicating that the queen is still actively laying.”

https://www.amnesty.org.uk/actions/woman-life-freedom

“After 4 hours of walking in the forest, some friends and I reached Cajón del Azul where the ice-cold waters of Azul River have carved deep into the stone over millenia. Although Cajón del Azul is a very popular place for tourists during the summer months, we found a secluded spot to rest and record some audios while we drank some “mates” (a traditional infusion in Argentina). I was impressed by this loud non-stop roar the cascades made and by the fact that this sound probably was, to the local fauna, as permanent as the Andes Mountains themselves. Throughout this 40 min recording you can quite barely hear our voices or the birds’ chirping over the deafening deep roar of the waters.”

“An enclosure with about a dozen captive pigeons in a park who are fluffing their feathers and flying around with sticks.”

Recorded for the Here Be Monsters episode 153: Klänge from Berlin

https://www.hbmpodcast.com/podcast/hbm153-klange-from-berlin