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.
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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:
156 Sheltered under night rain (sleep safe and high definition sound)
155 Out on Cooden Beach at night - part 1 (sleep safe)
154 An Exeter garden awakes
153 Freezing January rain under Britain’s highest pylon (sleep safe)
152 High above Folkestone beach
151 Dusky echoes in the Forest of Dean
150 Looking down on Coldingham Sands (January special 2 / 4)
149 Dawn birdsong from Derbyshire (a brighten up January special 1/4)
148 Suffolk Wood (part 13) - 8am to 9am
147 The barn high up the moor (sleep safe - atmospheric with headphones)
146 Fresh air along the Creel Path
145 Curling folding breaking waves (part 2 in hi-def sound)
144 Garden beside meadow in the Derbyshire hills
143 Lullaby waves by Nothe Sea Fort (sleep safe)
142 All aboard the Night Riviera (source of dark brown soporific noise)
141 Soft land murmuring - Wooler, Northumberland
140 Fishing village harbour at night (sleep safe)
139 Old rafters brewing storm
138 Ocean peace above Folkestone beach (sleep safe)
137 Night rains amongst moorland trees (sleep safe)
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