Deep in the night, when the air is quiet and still, the eerie sound of distant trains sometimes floats through the forest. This soundscape was recorded near Brockenhurst at 11pm.
Category: Soundscapes
Arrive, Depart
I recorded this one quiet, early morning at Brockenhurst Railway Station. A train arrives and departs. The varied different sounds are quite amazing, and I loved the way that, after the train departed, gradually the sound of the rails faded away and nature took over once again.
Dawn Rechorused
A sound art composition, Dawn Rechorused takes a recording of the dawn chorus running initially at normal speed. Then, as the piece progresses, the birdsong gets slower. First to 1/2 then 1/4 then 1/8 of the original speed using imperceptible crossfades. I think it’s amazing how the birdsong changes. When it gets really slow it sounds almost tropical.
It serves to show the fascinating melodic variations of garden birds. The more the original is slowed down, the more varied and unusual the bird’s melodies become. Things that can’t be distinguished at normal speed become clear. Although it’s old-fashioned, slowing down analogue reel to reel tape in this way presents a much more organic and natural quality than trying to slow down modern digital recordings.
Ripples
A gentle ambient music piece that combines a forest stream with a soft Fender Rhodes electric piano composition. This was recorded on a pair of linked, vintage valve Brenell and Ferrograph, early 1960’s tape recorders connected together by a loop of tape to form a time lag accumulation tape delay (a technique from the world of 1960’s experimental tape music). The intention here was to try to create music to capture the way that ripples in the forest stream sparkle and dance in the morning sunlight.
Springtime
This soundscape recording captures Springtime in The New Forest, with a bubbling stream, and the sound of a cuckoo and woodpecker adding to the woodland ambience.
Ponysales
A Sound Art composition created from raw material recorded at the Autumn Beaulieu Road Pony Sales. The idea was to create an organic piece that features the commoners, the sound of the ponies and the auctioneer, but compose it so that it has some unusual “listen again” elements, such as the modification of the auctioneer’s patter into a rhythmic pattern.
The Beaulieu Road pony sales yard is located on the Lyndhurst to Beaulieu road about three miles from Lyndhurst. The main pony sales occur late in the year there. All the New Forest ponies are rounded up by Agisters and commoners, taken off the Open Forest, counted and then health checks and necessary treatments given. The pony sales that occur soon afterwards provide the animals owners, (known as New Forest Commoners) the chance to sell their livestock, or to purchase more.
Here Comes the Rain
A soundscape composition that commences with a single drip of rain, and gradually turns into a veritable New Forest downpour.
In a Bluebell Wood
An ambient music composition. The natural soundscape of a bluebell wood recorded near New Park Manor in The New Forest, is combined here with an electric piano fed through a pair of Uher reel-to-reel tape recorders to create a softly disintegrating analogue tape echo. The piece aims to evoke the gentle movement of the bluebells in the Spring breeze.
Slow Stream
What does a forest stream sound like when slowed down, especially when the trickles and bubbles become unusual rhythmic structures?
This is a Sound Art piece and developed from crossfading four different sound sources together. Some of them have been slowed down by recording them onto magnetic tape on an elderly Ferrograph reel-to-reel machine, to as much as 1/64th of their normal speed to reveal the hidden and unusual sounds present. I recorded the source material along the Ober Water forest stream near Brockenhurst.
The piece starts with the stream at normal speed and then bit by bit, it gets progressively slower, and interesting rhythms start to emerge.
Brockenhurst Dawn Chorus
The dawn chorus of birdsong is the natural world’s most impressive and renowned ‘concert’. It sounds beautiful to us, but to the birds it’s simply a way to for rival males to resolve territorial conflicts. Basically, the louder and stronger your song and the more time you spend singing it, the better territory you can claim and the higher the chance of a female choosing to mate with you.
Experts contend that birds sing in the mornings because at this time, their sound carries further due to the lack of general noise and also the density of the air at that time of day.
The first birds to sing are often blackbirds, robins and wrens. Apparently birds with larger eyes start to sing earlier than those with smaller eyes. Larger eyes provide better light-gathering ability, so larger-eyed birds feel safe singing in the low, early dawn light because they find it easier to spot predators that might be attracted to their song.
Most of the dawn chorus comprises of males singing constantly repeating patterns of tones from elevated or conspicuous spots within their territory or breeding areas. Once the light levels start to rise, it’s often hunger that drives birds to stop singing and start looking for food instead.
