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.
162 Waterfall gorge on Dartmoor (high definition spatial sound)
161 Fishing village harbour at night - part 2 (sleep safe)
160 Forest ravine
159 Pure Northumbrian air (don’t forget Lento’s best with headphones)
158 That edgeland feel along the Thames near Tilbury Docks (sleep safe)
157 Immersed in Bayford Woods (an ear-witness account)
156 Sheltered under night rain (sleep safe and high definition sound)
155 Out on Cooden Beach at night - part 1 (sleep safe)
154 An Exeter garden awakes
152 High above Folkestone beach
151 Dusky echoes in the Forest of Dean
150 Looking down on Coldingham Sands (January special 2 / 4)
149 Dawn birdsong from Derbyshire (a brighten up January special 1/4)
148 Suffolk Wood (part 13) - 8am to 9am
147 The barn high up the moor (sleep safe - atmospheric with headphones)
146 Fresh air along the Creel Path
145 Curling folding breaking waves (part 2 in hi-def sound)
144 Garden beside meadow in the Derbyshire hills
143 Lullaby waves by Nothe Sea Fort (sleep safe)
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