At over 600 feet high, and visible for miles, this giant mass of steel pylon on Swanscombe Marsh on the Thames Estuary has a sister. They stand together, like monoliths either side of the sprawling Thames, holding up cables, and silently serving society's insatiable thirst for power.
After a shortish walk over the marsh from Swanscombe station, we arrived at the pylon on the Kent side bank. The ground directly beneath the pylon, in between its concrete footings, is flat. Barren, and crackling, under sharp pelting winter rain. Cold and already soaked, we unpack the audio equipment from our dripping rucksack and set up to record. As we pulled out its foldable legs, the mic stand oddly mirrored, on an atomic level, the skyscraper above.
We walked on along the new extension of the Thames Path and England Coast Path, and left the mics to record. Their job to capture, uninterrupted, this brutal sound landscape, and to whatever noises the pylon made.
The sharp winter rain. The spatial murmurations of this panoramic edgeland world. The rushing sometimes humming noise the wind fleetingly made, as it surged through the loftiest sections of the pylon (centre of scene). The deep pulsating rumble, that we later found (when speeded up) seem to be the long span powerlines, singing subsonically in the wind. A brutally beautiful day under Britain's highest pylon.
*The last time we recorded on Swanscombe Marsh (summer 2021) we heard a cuckoo. Amazing! This still surviving natural land is so much more than meets the eye. Listen to episode 77.
202 Upland woods in winter gales (breathe easy and *sleep safe*)
201 Out on Cooden Beach at night (part 2 - night breakers on shingle) *sleep safe*
200 Windswept night in the belfry of Rye Church
199 Moorland forest mid winter gales
198 Fishing village harbour at night (part 3 - wide open peacefulness)
197 December rain light to moderate (sleep safe)
196 Estuary bleak passing ship
195 Tranquility found on England’s highest railway station
194 Inside a bird hide
193 Slow waves in the night quiet (sleep safe)
192 Remembering summer on the Hoo Peninsula
191 Moorland waterfall (sleep safe natural white noise)
190 St Mary’s Church in Rye
189 Night rain falls on a drystone wall (quiet and sleep safe)
188 Rock seat on Rye Harbour beach
187 Steam train stops at country station
186 Slow forest Wyre valley
185 Onshore breeze on Chesil beach (sleep safe and in hi-def sound)
184 River rilling through Miller’s Dale (sleep safe, hour-long)
183 Upland fir forest (sleep safe and ideal for headphones)
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