I was delighted recently to be contacted by BBC Countryfile and invited to appear in the Easter Special episode of the popular Sunday night TV programme on BBC One.
I’ve been out with a film crew and presenter Matt Baker for two days. On day one we were on location in the Avon Valley on the outskirts of The New Forest where I was recording birdsong, atmospheres and the gentle sounds of a stream both from above and below the surface using a hydrophone in the water, I also recorded the sounds of wire fences – which sound like huge stringed instruments when captured up close, plus a wide variety of other field sounds.
During the shoot, I handed Matt one of my portable recorders and showed him my techniques for capturing sound, and we ended up both getting some great raw footage.
On day two, the whole crew came back to my studio here in The New Forest and I explained on camera how I develop the raw field recordings into a finished piece of music through blending natural sounds together with appropriate ambient musical elements.
During the studio filming, I introduced my unusual technique of repurposing an Akai MPC – a device more usually used for dance and hiphop – to manipulate, sequence and blend our previously-recorded field sounds.
It turns out that Matt Baker – who was absolutely great and looked after me wonderfully through the whole shoot – is very musical and so I gave him some guitar phrases that I’d composed for the piece to play, and also a little melody on my Moog synth.
I had an absolutely BRILLIANT time with the film crew and producer and loved every minute of the two days. The result will be going out Easter Sunday 2026. I’m looking forward to seeing the finished film, which I understand will be six minutes or so in duration – and instead of the usual Countryfile end music, they are apparently going to play out the show with the sound piece that we created.
New Forest Sounds on prime time National TV! Who would have thought?
In my next post, I’ll upload the completed sound piece for you to enjoy.
New Forest Sounds 