It's the dead of night. Along an exposed stretch of seawall East of Burnham-on-Crouch, a deluge has started. Rain lashes down from a pitch black sky onto the swirling water of an out-going tide. This is the River Crouch, and the microphones are capturing the essence of this nocturnal estuary landscape, opposite Wallasea Island in Essex.
Bright daytime, on Landermere Creek. Wild water surrounded by green fields and farmland. Gulls, redshank and curlews speed up and down the creek on fast, blustery breezes. In this place there's a strong sense of escape, and of a world where land, sea and weather interlace.
On a rock, closely suspended above a small patch of exposed shell beach at the mouth of the Blackwater Estuary, near Bradwell-on-Sea, the microphones capture the pristine detail of the incoming tide. The way these particular waves move. the way they lap, and hurry along the contoured rocky edges, as the tide slowly rises. It's a sound that no matter where you are, or what you're doing, happens twice a day, everyday.
We stumbled upon a fallen tree whilst walking over Galley Hill near Epping Forest. the M25 sounded further away than usual, so we tied the mics under its steeply angled trunk for some shelter, and left them to record the ambience of the place alone. Some rain falls in large heavy drops, from ominous grey clouds seen from miles away approaching. But this rain didn't. It fell from an open sky, light as it was light grey. Flocks of jackdaws flew overhead, surveying the wide open fields between the outcrops of trees.
We always set out to capture the closest 3D aural experience we can, so with a pair of headphones, you can close your eyes and feel yourself present somewhere else, somewhere perhaps more natural, and peaceful, but without our human presence disturbing the nature that lives there. As dawn breaks over a wood in Suffolk, the mics capture, almost close enough to touch, a rare experience of small furry animals, scampering about with each other, on the crisp summer-dry forest floor.
-------------------------------
Thanks for listening and for spreading the word about Radio Lento, a self-funded podcast helped by listener recommendations and donations. Last May we went to the Podcast Show in London and walked about feeling like ducks out of water! Ad spend, business plans, audience growth and sales. We're typing this in a Youth Hostel far far away, with the mics still out on their overnight record, and being pelted by rain, we feel much better.
Here's where to listen to the full episodes featured in this daydream:
Soundscenes of spring from the Derbyshire hills
A fallen tree on Galley Hill
Suffolk Wood (part 7) 2am - counting the chirps of a dark bush cricket (sleep safe)
Seaside brutalism - at the Port of Felixstowe
56 The whispering trees of Bayford Wood
Light rain beside the lane near Sandy
Sound-scenes of Norman's Pond as dusk turns to night - sleep safe
After the dawn chorus in the Forest of Dean
52 The balm of warm woodland in late summer
Garden birds under a silent sky
50 Singing beck below Black Hill (sleep safe)
Suffolk Wood (part 6) - 1am to 2am sleep safe with owls
Abney Park on Christmas Day in the morning
Quiet field by Young Wood
Derbyshire gales blow away the cobwebs
Night rain falls on a Peak District moorside (part 2 - sleep safe)
Bucolic contrasts under low cloud - the land between Sandy and St Neots
43 Tidal water mirror still - a sound view from Canvey Island
42 Night beside a stream in Wales (sleep safe)
Gulls at low tide along the River Thames
Create your
podcast in
minutes
It is Free
Your Sleep Guru Podcast
Anxiety Slayer™ with Shann and Ananga
Men Do Talk Podcast
The Dr. John Delony Show
On Purpose with Jay Shetty