Growing up in the mid-Atlantic states of the US and with roots and time lived in the Deep South, few sounds bring me to a state of transcendence like the orchestrated song of insects at night. The spectrally tight but densely-layered score of hundreds or thousands of insects pulsing, ratcheting, trilling, buzzing, and singing in concert is soothing my the ears and the best sleep-aid I can experience for myself.

There’s so much life in a chorus, and it’s not only insects. Frogs occasionally beep. Bats flutter by. The occasional leaf drops from the canopy. This is my happy place.

Recorded on the last night of a stay in a private lodge on Costa Rica’s Osa Peninsula, near Parque Nacional Corcovado.

Recording by Andy Martin at the Osa Peninsula, Costa Rica