Field Recordings 3

Field Recordings 3

Field Recordings 3 should be released in a few days time on 26th April 2023.

I sent a preview to a friend, without the sleeve notes, and they sent me back the following:

Dales

Took me into a summer meadow and rushy pasture with the distant sound of Curlew, occasional Skylark and Peewit a plenty. The swish of clothing against the grass and distant deer bark. I could have stayed here longer and found Stuart from Mogwai…..

Sam

A bit ominous and chaotic. Are the birds scattering from a dog off its lead. Good job those ground-nesting birds are not here.

Tetto

Am I walking across sand dunes? Or some other exotic place that is warm and other-worldly? These birds sound as familiar as the local Great Tit yet not familiar. The gentle single descending note of the Bullfinch(?) declaring its love for the world.

I can do that for quite a while

brings to mind Daphne Oram’s Tumblewash. The voices of the track title near the end genuinely sounded like they were coming from beyond my headphones when listening on my daily work commute inside a train’s acoustics, I rewound several times replaying those voices over and over.

Echo Two

I have now escaped the hum-drum life of people and mechanical sounds of industry. Gone to another place….

Snow

It crunches, it walks to its own rhythm, maybe there is a party going on in a winter woodland. If you stop too long it disappears. Keep moving, keep moving and you feel the heartbeat of nature out there in the silence.

Overall I wondered at times whether some pieces could have carried on building for a while and been longer to become more like fully formed songs but at the same time I appreciate these are field recordings and so reflect different sensory experiences rather than trying too hard to be a song - and the fact they feel sometimes to stop as maybe they are building up does make you feel like they are giving you a window into an experience and you want more - leaving you wanting more is always a good thing.

The album is out on 26th April 2023, and available from my Bandcamp page. Follow me there or sign up to the mailing list to be notified.