Field Recordings

“Descending the stairs, I was disappointed to see a two-digit number in the wait time for the train. the music started a couple minutes later. they had a pedal and an instrument i couldn’t identify. i wouldn’t say it was dreamy, and there’s not really a synonym i can find that captures it. maybe bewitching. the train came, they packed up and left, then my train came, and since then i’ve been googling things like “synth you can blow into” or “digital woodwind” trying to find out more.”

“This first big snow was really dreamy. It started late in the night after I’d gone to bed, and had already stopped by morning. When I woke up there was the shock of a white, white world and a few inches on the ground. I got lost in the stillness of the day, and watched little heaps tumble from branches when a breeze rattled through.”

“16th century Soho fields being ploughed in protest by 21st century musical tractors.”

“I happened to be visiting my family home in Italy this past week and some cows were grazing in the field opposite, regardless of the rain, fog or snow. Their bell kept me company through the week.”

“It had just stopped raining and the tank was about two thirds full. The water was still dripping into the tank making a fantastic sound. Although the microphones were inside the tank they managed to pick up the occasional car passing by.”

“The tide was very high and the river was flowing fast. The boat was furiously moving around, even hitting the concrete pier. Meanwhile life went by as usual, with people strolling and jogging past the boat.”

“Rather than a traditional pure recording, here’s 2 perspectives carefully mixed together. The recording features 11 strikes of St. Paul’s Cathedral clock bell to mark the 11th hour and the 2 minutes silence as heard from the rooftop of the cathedral together with sounds from ground level.”

“The Cutty Sark sits on the edge of the Thames, quietly away from busy Greenwich. The river was lively, with seagulls, a Mudlarker looking for treasure and passing boats creating waves that slapped against the shore.”

“This recording was taken from the yard of Vahandukht Melkonyan – an 89-year-old great-grandmother and the last person left living in an almost-abandoned Armenian village. Her home sits on the border with Turkey. Just a few hundred meters from her home, across that border, are the ruins of the famous 11th-century Armenian city of Ani. Even though Vahandukht looks at Ani from her garden every day, she has never been able to visit: this border has been closed to civilians for over a hundred years. But she is so close that she can hear sounds from the ancient city, including the...

“After dinner we went to find a place to watch the sunset and wound up at a park a few miles up Route 9. It was dusk and we settled on a bench facing a pond where the fish were having a feeding frenzy. Their heads would ripple up out of the water to grab a bug and I tried to get a clean recording of the sound but couldn’t manage it. Every time their head popped up, one of us would laugh.”

“Late one August evening, my partner and I were driving through the mountains of Portugal’s Serra da Estrela. As we were passing through the village of Sabugueiro, we suddenly heard a chorus of bells. In a flash, we saw a shepherd leading a herd of goats to their shed for the night. We stopped the car and I followed them through the small, cobbled streets for a while, until they turned a final corner, leaving all the village dogs barking. 

(recorded on iPhone)”

“One of the sounds I associate most with Lisbon (where my mother was born), is the eerie polyphony of the Ponte 25 de abril. The red suspension bridge across the river Tejo hums and howls as cars and trucks drive over its metallic grating. Now and then, trains join in from the lower deck. This recording was made around midnight, right underneath the bridge on the north bank. 

(recorded in stereo AB with two omni’s from Immersive Soundscapes)”

“I want to share a recording from June 2025. It was recorded with zoom h1n – X/Y capsules, near Campo Imperatore in a place called ‘Little Tibet’ in Parco nazionale d’Abruzzo, Lazio e Molise – Italy. I recorded it during Abruzzo Trail, a bikepacking event.”

“At the very bottom of the Iberian Peninsula Spain and Portugal are separated by a natural border – the river Guadiana. Vila Real and Ayamonte sit on opposite sides of the river, two towns very much connected, with people constantly moving back and forth across the border.”

“This tape was gathered in Boise, Idaho with a contact microphone affixed to a tree root partially submerged in the Boise River.”

“Photo is view from lying in tent where I recorded when the sun came up in morning.”

“I was having a drink at the back deck of the Historic Mayflower Pub in London, right on the Thames. The tide was high and choppy. I managed to slip a couple of microphones through the floorboards to get the wonderful sound of the Thames. I love how you can hear passing boats and the pub crowd in the background.”

“On the morning of the second day whilst at Arvon Lumb Bank writers’ retreat I walked up the steep hill cow-heavy to Hepenstall Cemetery where Sylvia Plath is buried. I recorded my footsteps crossing the cemetery and the sounds that surrounded me whilst stood at her grave. I was so struck by the life, insects, birds, a lawn mower and at one point an aeroplane which on the recording sounds like something much more supernatural. On her grave there are some words that Ted Hughes chose to have engraved, they are not Sylvia’s but another writer’s. As I stood an...

“Alcoutim sits on the shore of the River Guadiana, which acts as a natural border between Portugal and Spain. While having a drink nearby the wind picked up and the boats and Jetty started making a wonderful noise. Note how the local Church bell rings 3pm and, a couple of minutes after, the Church in Sanlucar De Guadiana (across the river in Spain) rings 4pm! Marking the time difference between the two countries.”

“About 300 people watched the Euro’s final at MOTH club in Hackney, London. It ended with a tense penalty shoutout and joyous celebrations (at least from the Lionesses’ supporters).”

“Hundreds gather outside Downing Street banging pots and pans as Israel’s blockade continues to cause the starvation of Palestinians in the Gaza strip. 120 people – 80 of them children – have been confirmed dead from famine as of 26th July. In the last 24 hours two babies have died from malnutrition. Nearly 1000 Palestinians have been shot to death by Israeli soldiers whilst queuing for food.”

“Binaural recording made on Samsung Galaxy S20 using Roland CS-10EM earbuds.”

“This is from February, so not very current at all… But I still love the sound. The snow was delightfully squeaky and I took every chance I could to stomp around during my wonderful stay there this past winter.”

“An emergency protest hours after parliament voted 385 to 26 to proscribe Palestine Action as a terrorist group. Palestine Action are a direct action protest group who target Israeli weapons factories in the UK and their supply chain. This vote happened on the same day that MPs – including Yvette Cooper who drafted the order to amend the Terrorism Act – dressed up in sashes to celebrate 97 years since the suffragette’s direct action tactics helped secure women’s right to vote. 111 Palestinians were killed by Israeli airstrikes on 2nd July in Gaza.”

“What a joy to stand in the rain alongside neighbours and elders on a day of protest!” An intergenerational singalong at the Brooklyn No Kings Protest, Prospect Park. Saturday, June 14th.”

“Here’s a recording I made on the sidelines of my son’s soccer (call it football if you want!) game in Brooklyn in May.”

“A lovely circular walk along the river where the ancient clapper bridge known as “The Tarr Steps” is located. A beautiful forested area with plenty of wildlife.”

“As part of the EBU International Audio Storytelling Festival, I organised a communal drone performance using skudučiai. Skudučiai (usually plural) are traditional Lithuanian folk instruments, simple wooden pipes, each producing a single pitch, meant to be played together, with or against each other, listening and arriving at shared melodies through connection in the moment. Each participant received a randomly selected pipe (kindly lent by my former high school music teacher, Ingrida) and joined in, following a few loose instructions. In the end, more than 80 people joined in and created beautiful textures and harmonies, idiosyncratic to the moment. The...

“Last Sunday, I went field recording at Lerderderg State Park on Wurundjeri Country, about an hour away from my place. I recorded this from the dry creek bed as people walked the trails back to their cars at the end of their Mothers day activities. I love how they integrated into the soundscape”

“On route to Annapurna Basecamp which is a 12 day trek, we came across this vast waterfall, called a cascade as it features a series of small falls, all connecting to each other. Next to the waterfall was a Buddhist stupa that had memory bells adorned to the outside, each carved with a memory. As the bells rang, the waterfall rushed down the rocks to soundtrack them; it felt like the memories were brought back to life in that moment, carried by the flowing water.”  

“I was recently in the Pacific North West of the USA. I captured the dawn chorus from a remote forest on Lopez Island – the third largest of the San Juan Islands off the coast of Washington State. Photo by Todd Stevens”

“It was lovely yet windy Saturday. I was enjoying the sounds of the trees moving at a small wooded area in front of the village church, with the village noises in the background.”

“…from my camp out at the Knepp estate last week – managed to creep up pretty close to a nightingale singing in the shrubby hedgerows.  Absolutely gorgeous to fall asleep to them calling out to each other through the night.”

“I placed a hydrophone at the bottom of a large well-used saucepan and part filled it. The recording was a little disappointing, then I started playing with the speed and frequency of drips from the tap and managed to approximate a driving, but rather bass-free beat with a hint of melody.”

“Every morning, specially in the fine weather we are currently enjoying, I come out to listen to the birds, which all seem to be specially loud, managing to almost drown all the city noises.”

“Galloping Ghost Arcade in Brookfield, Illinois, claims to be the largest video game arcade in the world. They have over 1,030 arcade games, dating back to the 1970s. When I went on a recent Thursday night around 7pm, for a friend’s birthday, almost nobody else was there.”

“Thousands of people gathered on Saturday, March 22nd at Macy’s in Philadelphia, PA to hear the last performances of the Wanamaker Organ – possibly the world’s largest pipe organ – as the department store marked its final weekend in business. This is an excerpt from the final recital by John Wanamaker Grand Court Organist Peter Richard Conte. My wife gave this piece the unofficial title: ‘an elegy for in-person shopping’.”

“This recording is taken just off of the pier around midnight. The sea was so full of character I was completely enthralled and if you listen carefully you can hear the strong tide pulling the lava rock out to sea with it. I completely fell for its whispers and it was a real struggle to pull myself away to sleep.”

“I took myself to Derbyshire for a few days in early February. I walked up to Stanton Moor with my dog Rosie (not named by me!) looking for a Bronze Age stone circle called the Nine Ladies. Nearby were silver birches with their dead brown leaves rustling in the wind.”

“A morning recording outside Curious Fox Books, Berlin. Children and adults voices, passing bicycles. General ambience from people socialising, children playing. An S-Bahn train arrives to the nearby Gorlitzer Bahnhof.”

“It’s quiet time at the Fulton Fish Market — though the forklifts still move fast and beep loudly. A fish hook is an extension of oneself, used to sling tuna, black sea bass, and salmon, from crates to weighing stations.

The market moved from the South Street Seaport to the Bronx in 2005. Now, it’s in an industrial part of the borough, next to the city’s floating prison Vernon C. Bain Center and Rikers Island.

It’s mostly wholesale buyers here from restaurants and gourmet markets in the early hours of the morning (open from 2-7 am...

“The wonderful steam train arrives at Haworth station. I love how the arrival is reasonably quiet but upon departure you hear the power of the steam engine echoing around the valley.”

“A group of organizers had distributed flyers in our neighborhood for a timely cathartic moment atop the large mountain park that overlooks the city of San Francisco and the bay. It was organized to coincide with the swearing-in of the newest conservative American regime on Inauguration day. But one’s rage can’t be limited to whoever is in the presidential office. We scream for a litany of injustices—an endless list that cannot be exhausted here. Many rages filled my lungs that day and escaped my mouth in an inarticulate howl. Beneath the rage was a yearning for:
Justice...

“This morning I was delighted to find that, after quite a few months,  this woodpecker has returned! Back to the very same tree. I love how the sound echoes around the garden.”

“Here is a little recording of our local spring. We hiked through 2ft of snow in the -10 temps to the head of our local creek. Due to the deep cold we are in, the ice formations around the spring are spectacular. The quiet babble of the creek makes this such a special place.”

“It was a lovely, bright morning. The birds were loud, trying to compete with the sound of passing planes heading to Heathrow airport.”

“Recorded using a contact microphone at Queen’s Park pond on the Southside of Glasgow, during a cold snap in January. The pond had frozen over (which doesn’t happen often), and people were walking and skating on it. One person asked if I was measuring the thickness of the ice. I handed my headphones round a group of kids, and it was fun to watch their reactions to the sci-fi noises. The faint mechanical sound at the end is a boy driving his remote-control truck across the pond.”

“From a country town called Deniliquin. We stayed at a caravan park down by the river, and at about midnight, I snuck out with my mic and went down to the bank.”

“As soon you walked into the park it was like someone was playing the noise out over massive speakers… It was like a giant congregation point before they headed off for their final resting place of that evening, which is usually under the pier.” 

“The surf was about 2.5m with a strong on shore breeze. The beach we recorded on was protected from the wind and made wonderful recording conditions. The beach is in Ecola State Park next to Cannon Beach. I recorded this clip with a stereo pair of Clippy lapel mic’s and a zoom H5. This was recorded Jan 11 2025.”

“The drones are from the enormous petrochemical plant that dominates the skyline of the Immingham docks on the Humber.”

“Lovely quiet winter morning, next to one of the two water mills.”

“I went for my daily walk along the Neris river one sunny afternoon last year. It was all frozen just a couple of days ago. The weather had changed overnight. As I was approaching, I saw these amazing ice cakes slowly drifting along and spinning around making the coziest squeaky sounds. I just stood there with my phone and observing in awe. And a couple of passers by did the same. And their dogs too. I came back the next day with my proper recorder but it was gone.”

“My dog Toby joins in by digging in the earth next to me.”

“Walking across some snowy fields with my dog, Toby, who joyfully runs up and bites the wind sock on my mic as he runs by.”

“Walking with corduroy trousers into frozen puddles.”

“I stood on the doorstep to look at the stars because of the ice bright visibility and heard them calling to each other.”

“Three minutes of fireworks recorded from 23:59 – 00:01 on New Year’s Eve. They get louder and more intense as midnight approaches. I leant out of a top-floor window and heard the rumble of distant fireworks bouncing off the trees behind the houses, then the closer bangs and party squeals from a few doors down. What you can’t hear are the panicked crows swooping around the treetops.”

A slow weave of some of the past year’s Field Recordings, from a thunderstorm in Buenos Aires to whistling wind rattling the windows of a lighthouse in the Outer Hebrides.

Summer storm, Vedia, Buenos Aires, Argentina in January 2024 – by Joaquín Conde

“I left my recorder one afternoon under the sheet metal eaves of my parents’ house, anticipating the storm: you can hear the incessant thunder, the rain, the neighbour’s children playing, the wind, the birds, and much more…”

Stone mill milling corn, a village near Otočac, Croatia, on March 17th 2024 – by Mar...

“On a cold December day, birds duet with a brass band”

“Climbing to the top of a lighthouse in the Outer Hebrides, wind sings through the crack in a window”

“Timid water soothes and refreshes the thirsty kelp, which gratefully responds with a crackling chorus of tiny algal voices.”

“On the 50th anniversary of ABBA winning Eurovision”

“The tide was very high and choppy, hitting the side walls. You can also hear planes coming and going from the nearby London City Airport.”

“I was in Powys for a few days, staying in a converted barn for a long weekend and was unexpectedly impacted by Storm Darragh. At first the heavy winds and rain hit woke us up in the dead of night on Saturday morning, increasingly battering the roof until we lost power from late morning until Sunday. Here is a brief recording of the winds from inside the barn before it really kicked off. I have to give a lot of respect to the people who worked tirelessly clearing fallen trees and debris, and the engineers who worked relentlessly to ge...

“I don’t know their species, but we nicknamed them baby cows. Perhaps you’ll hear why.”

“My father and I got into the car and hurried to the railroad crossing, willing to get there in time to record: just minutes earlier we heard the distant sound of a train about to leave town. We got there seconds before the locomotive rushed past us saturating the microphone. The freight cars picked up speed as they pulled away from the station but everything went silent at the peak of this crescendo. Only echoes remained, the ghost of a train heading west and the night gradually reclaiming its habitual sounds.

This recording is a statement of pr...

“Every year in September and October is the deer mating season, you can hear them all over the natural park. It is something unique, especially when you are fortunate enough to also see them.”

“It’s the rainy season now, and at night frogs would show up and start making sounds—somehow it was like they’re talking to each other, forming a busy temporary town under the dark landscape of tall bushes. Rain caused high streams of water flowing, joining the crowded soundscape. I stood at a distance enough to observe, while a few motorbikes passed by, and the smell of the abating rain emerged.

I really cherished this sound, as it was tickling my ears these past few days (and that’s why I decided to record and send it).”

“Here is a recording of snow falling on the recorder and into a small stream that feeds into the River Dart. Plus a bonus call from the Jay that nests nearby!”

“I made it around dusk as I wanted to get the call of the Baja California frogs that live on this stretch of the river… it’s a part of the river which hasn’t completely been trapped in concrete as the water table is too high, and as such, the concrete bottom was never able to stick here. It’s a peculiar, but in my opinion stunningly surreal part of LA.”