Field Recordings

“It felt genuinely moving seeing this park fill with people gathering to see the changing light. Unified by the same stupid Instagram algorithm, the park was awash with people staring intently into colanders, pushing their faces up against cereal packets and old CD jewel cases, or just wearing large boxes on their heads. It might have been my imagination but as the light grew eerily dark, Greenwich’s parakeets seemed to gather noisily too.”

“John Cage’s Organ2/ASLSP composition is being performed on a custom built organ for 639 years at St. Buchardi Church in Halberstadt, Germany. Hundreds of people from all around the world packed into the small church for the ceremonial note change – the addition of an A pipe. In this recording, the note changes at ~1:50.

This chord will ring out until the next change on October 5, 2027.”

“On the last night of my holidays, I hoped to record the jackdaws that congregate in the trees next to the Basilique Notre-Dame de Délivrance in Quintin, Bretagne. When I arrived there, a concert was in full swing inside the church. I recognised the music from when I sang it more than 20 years ago during an Erasmus in Wales. It was Karl Jenkins’ The Armed Man: A Mass for Peace, an anti-war composition for soloists, choir and orchestra. I stood there for a while, listening to that familiar and still all-too-relevant music, in the company of the jackdaws. I forgot to take a picture, so this one is from the next morning. “

“At low tide, the beach of Hillion in Bretagne is dotted with rocks full of oysters, sea snails and other clicking, crackling, crunching creatures. One of those rocks was particularly striking and loud. In the distance: a band of seagulls and other waterbirds. Maybe you can even hear the rather spectacular sunset.”