Today marks four years of Radio Lento! We launched on 29 March 2020. Since then, a hundred and forty hours of material shared. Hundreds of thousands of ad-free and cost-free downloads. Long-form audio recordings. Of natural and empty places. In high precision spacious sound. Real aural essences of what it is to be present and immersed in a real place.
We've not missed a week since March 2020. Rural and country places. Coastal and tidal places. Edgelands. Brutal landscapes. Sonorous interior spaces. In wind and rain. Under the forces of nature. Broad daylight and the dead of night. We're interested not in any particular thing, but in the sound of every thing. In soundscapes that are most often not experienced. Because they seem empty. Places where nothing seems to be happening. Places filled with the delicate and the subtle. The soft, and the fragile. Aural environments that only through focusing over time, form in the mind's eye of the listener.
Four years of producing Lento and we do still struggle to explain to people what Lento is. Is it mindfulness? Well, it could be, but we aren't really thinking of that when we make the recordings. Is it nature? Not specifically. Is it an experimental podcast? We are definitely not experimenting. Perhaps the ordinary, the everyday, the subtle, the long-form, is just too off the beaten track. We add that Lento is slow growing, but that we do get quite a lot of good feedback. They often say why don't you do a marketing plan? We say we can't really make one because the value of the material is in the the listeners heads not ours. They say you could combine it with someone doing guided meditation. We explain that any talking at all would ruin Lento. And they ask how do people know how to listen to it? And we say they just have to work it out for themselves. And they don't say anything. And we stare at each other.
And after a few moments of thought they say your pod sounds amazing. And we ask if they have listened to it? And they say they will. And we explain it's harder than it seems to capture real authentic quiet, properly, because the places we can get to are almost always scattered with human made noise but when we do practice patience, quiet does eventually come, and that really makes each recording. And they seem to be thinking about it, but not know what to say next. And then we talk about something else. And we hope they might try listening, in a quiet place of course, with a pair of headphones or ear pods, so they can hear the captured quiet properly.
In this special edition to mark four years we retrace our steps through six 10 minute segments from these episodes:
17 Dusk in the Forest of Dean
26 Delicate sifting waves at Felixstowe Ferry
139 A passing storm from the attic of an old house
128 Persistent rain at night in an urban garden
192 Spring wildlife on the Hoo Peninsula, Kent
136 Ocean breakers near St Abbs on the east coast of Scotland
Listen to each episode in full via our blog.
Our grateful thanks to everyone who listens and supports Lento.
106 In time the wren will come - Murmurs of the Kerry Ridgeway
105 Boy dog beach fossils
104 While away in winter woodland (a clear mind special)
103 Tidal breakers winter beach - in HD sound
102 Mild valley in June at the Cheshire / Derbyshire border (source of natural white noise)
101 At Benfleet Creek
100 Suffolk Wood (part 11) - a new day
99 High in the hills amongst snow laden trees - Christmas special
98 A ship that passes in the night - sleep safe
97 Through the trees, distant weir (source of natural white noise - 3D with ear/headphones)
96 A blustery day begins on inland tidal water (headphones)
95 Suffolk Wood (part 10) - a voyage from dawn to day - spacious and subtle - best with headphones
94 The trees that wait for the chalk stream to flow (natural source of white noise)
93 Rain garden after dark (sleep safe)
92 Up in the April hills of mid Wales
91 When woods go weird
90 Wind on water, night curlews, rain later (sleep safe)
89 The birds of the leafy ravine - a tonic for tired minds (best with headphones)
88 An afternoon at Wrabness (part 2)
87 Sky landing - when the wind bends the trees
Create your
podcast in
minutes
It is Free
Good Mood Revolution
Your Sleep Guru Podcast
Anxiety Slayer™ with Shann and Ananga
Men Do Talk Podcast
The Dr. John Delony Show
On Purpose with Jay Shetty