The night we captured this soundscene of Cooden Beach in East Sussex, there was a brisk onshore breeze blowing in from the west. West is to the right of scene, where the incoming waves can sometimes be heard making first landfall. It's February. It's coming up to 11pm. The sky is a deep dark velvet, and the clean sea air, is hovering around 6 degrees centigrade. Nobody is about.
Centre of scene is due south. The open sea. Behind, the whole of England. Just over a mile and a half to the west is Normans Bay. Two miles to the east is Bexhill. It's a coastline defined by shingle. Vast sloping fields of clean rounded stones, stretching from horizon to horizon.
On such an overcast night as this. Moonless. The landscape can no longer be defined by its horizon. To our sense of spatial hearing, and being within thirty yards of the crashing waves, the world is transformed into a wide textured canvas. Heavy greys and shadowed browns across the lower half. Brighter, crisper, scattering greys, just above the mid-line. Every breaker there, as it makes landfall. And there, as its form collapses into spray. Still there, as it rattles and hauls the loose shingle back with it. There, and there again, always in different places. From left to right. Endlessly overlapping. Endlessly renewing. Night breakers, on a shingle beach.
* This is the latter half of a one hour recording we captured on Cooden Beach last February. Hear the first section in episode 155. In 2021 we captured the shingle of Normans Bay in episode 63 and the essence of Bexhill in episode 66.
179 Rain scapes special - August intermission 1 (sleep safe)
178 Waves of the intertidal zone (Don’t forget Lento’s built for headphones!)
177 Summer meadow woodland edge
176 Early morning below Nothe Fort
175 Night train sleeper (sleep safe)
174 Where cool woodland meets the summer sea (an afternoon snooze)
173 Deep forest time (long & sleep safe)
172 Heatwave thunderstorm that washes and cools (panoramic, made for headphones)
171 Sunrise birds in sea washed air
170 Night murmuring in Tenby (sleep safe)
169 Ear witness report from the Hoo Peninsula May 2023
168 At the mouth of a sea cave (Lento’s best with headphones)
167 An hour under moorland trees (rainy and sleep safe)
166 Midnight waves at the foot of the sea fort (sleep safe)
165 Up in the hills of mid Wales
164 Garden rain as winter turns to spring (daydream and sleep safe)
163 Chesil Beach (sleep safe and in high-definition sound)
162 Waterfall gorge on Dartmoor (high definition spatial sound)
161 Fishing village harbour at night - part 2 (sleep safe)
160 Forest ravine
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