Myself and good friend Matt Shenton went on a well overdue trudge around the edge of Old Hall Marshes near Tollesbury. It's an RSPB site, so we were looking forward to hearing, seeing, recording, some birds, but as the car park is closed on weekends (doh!) we had a extra mile or so walk to get to the site. it was windy and fresh, but with a hint of warmth. Was good to take in heady lung fulls of muddy salt marsh air.

Once we got there Matt recorded a fence with his contact mics and I sat quietly near the borrowdyke listening to a plethora of birds. There was however a lot of aircraft activity, which when looking at the Flight Radar app there was a light airplane doing a lot of small loops around Copford, and an Airbus 330 flying from Frankfurt to Cancun, amongst others. You can however revel in the delightful sounds of Sedge Warblers, Whitethroat, Wren, Chiffchaff, Swallow, Reed Bunting, Goldfinch, Blackcap, Greenfinch, Yellow Wagtail, Pheasant and Robin.

To follow up on my recording of the Nightingales at Middlewick from last year (yes, I know it takes me a long time to do things) I wanted to record the skylarks as there are several nesting pairs on the site. Frazer Merrick (artist and runner) commented that he'd just heard them on Middlewick and Michael Padmore (from the 'Save Middlewick' campaign) tipped me off of some more locations. So I got up before dawn and headed out to hide amongst the gorse and broom. Even at 6:30 you can hear that there is a lot of traffic noise that the birds have to compete with. The skylarks were very actively singing, but I couldn't observe them flying with their distinctive up and down trajectories. Also in this recording are Chiffchaff, Great Tit, Linnet, Blackbird, Crow and Song Thrush.

Just at the end of this recording (edited off) I got bowled into by an out of control dog called Rocky, which knocked me off of my seat and onto the floor, covering me with wet footprints and slobbery tongue. Imagine what it would do to the skylarks if it had found them nesting on the ground.

In preparation for my upcoming project Constable Ambisonic (more on that soon), I was in Manningtree Station car park for 5am to meet my friend photographer Simon Rogers. It was damp but mild and we walked the paths of the Stour Valley as far as Flatford and back, simply to get back in to the swing of being up early, in the field, listening and recording. In this, the third recording of the morning, one can hear two Great Spotted Woodpeckers working on different trees, Chiffchaff, Robin, Wren, Moorhen, Coal Tit, Pheasant, Wood Pigeon and Dunnock, as well as a flock of Graylag and Canada Geese in the distance. A wheezing pug and her owner also put in an appearance.

It had been a while since I'd done any recording so it was great to get up early and head out to one of my favourite spots, Arger Fen. I made two recordings, this one in the woods, and another in more open scrubland. Since it was before dawn there was plenty of bird action including tawny owl, pheasant, song thrush, robin, blackbird, mistle thrush, wren, chaffinch, crow, coal tit, dunnock and green woodpecker. Although I know quite a few species now I'm ever reliant on the Cornell University Merlin bird app for identification, which is fantastic and I really recommend it if you want to become a bird nerd.

On the 19th September 2013 I had a phone call from a friend who only phones when he needs something. He's cool so usually it's a pretty good shout. He was in a spot of bother and needed a package full of art taken to a gallery for him as the package sent via courier had gone missing. Only problem was that it needed to be there tomorrow, and the gallery was in Århus, Denmark. So, with only 3 hours sleep I got the airport bus at 3am, was on an 8am flight from London Stansted, took a bus from the airport, got picked up by someone in a car at the rendezvous point, was driven to the gallery and delivered the important package of art. There was a lot of applause and cheering. Everyone was happy. I got to spend the rest of the day meeting artists and exploring the city. The recording documents walking a full revolution of the Your Rainbow Panorama, designed by architects at Studio Olafur Eliasson.

Whilst collecting sounds for my Modern Tendring Vernacular project in February 2024 I went to record the tide bell at Harwich, which I had never seen or heard before. There was a strong wind and rain but I'd timed the tide right to capture the bell, and was meeting a chap called Geoff soon, so only had one shot at recording it.

Between 2008 and 2010 I lived in Hackney and on a cold Wednesday morning I went for a walk down Ridley Road Market in Dalston. I remember there being lots of meat, piles of pigs trotters and some strange vegetables. I loved the mixture of cultures, food, voices, accents, and music, but not so much the intensity of some of the smells. I recorded this whilst walking along so it's not a static recording but one that evolves as I move along the street.

In the years around 2013 I would go on regular walks with my good friend and artist Alan Hockett, exploring the darker, more mysterious corners of Essex. On this particular day we walked from Burnham-on-Crouch, along the sea wall, to the North Sea (previously called The German Ocean). Not long after setting of we came across a gorgeous but old crab that was being used to lift a small yacht out of the river and on to dry land. Here is the sound of it in action.

During a research and development trip for the project Fabric: Silk Road (with Ruth Philo) I recorded two women working with silk on a large hand operated loom at the Museum of Silk Manufacture in Nanjing, China. Although I couldn't understand their commentary it was fascinating to watch them work together on this complicated and beautiful machine.

Ruth continues the project which you can follow at http://www.fabricsilkroad.co.uk and on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/fabricsilkroad

By a strange set of circumstances I found my self sitting, quite near to the village lock-up and stocks, outside Canewdon Church on a sunny Sunday morning. The bells were ringing for quite some time but just as I was relaxing in to reverie, a couple of things happened. A light aircraft was passing over head, and whilst that's nothing new in that area, the drone of the aircraft slightly descended to match the key of a new peal. The peal also sounded more mechanical and drone-like in itself and less like it was played by the campanologists inside. Lasting not quite one and half minutes it was quite possibly the most unique bell peal I have ever heard. I was quite amazed by it and also by the in-tune aircraft.

After a pause, the bell ringers started again and whilst less interesting I have included a portion of it here as the recording features my first ever kestrel at about 7m50s. What a lovely morning and at a church reputed to be one of the most haunted places in Essex with an association with 'witches and devilry'. There is even a local legend, that I remember as a child, that if you run around the church anti-clockwise on Halloween, the Devil himself will appear.