It's the dead of night. Along an exposed stretch of seawall East of Burnham-on-Crouch, a deluge has started. Rain lashes down from a pitch black sky onto the swirling water of an out-going tide. This is the River Crouch, and the microphones are capturing the essence of this nocturnal estuary landscape, opposite Wallasea Island in Essex.
Bright daytime, on Landermere Creek. Wild water surrounded by green fields and farmland. Gulls, redshank and curlews speed up and down the creek on fast, blustery breezes. In this place there's a strong sense of escape, and of a world where land, sea and weather interlace.
On a rock, closely suspended above a small patch of exposed shell beach at the mouth of the Blackwater Estuary, near Bradwell-on-Sea, the microphones capture the pristine detail of the incoming tide. The way these particular waves move. the way they lap, and hurry along the contoured rocky edges, as the tide slowly rises. It's a sound that no matter where you are, or what you're doing, happens twice a day, everyday.
We stumbled upon a fallen tree whilst walking over Galley Hill near Epping Forest. the M25 sounded further away than usual, so we tied the mics under its steeply angled trunk for some shelter, and left them to record the ambience of the place alone. Some rain falls in large heavy drops, from ominous grey clouds seen from miles away approaching. But this rain didn't. It fell from an open sky, light as it was light grey. Flocks of jackdaws flew overhead, surveying the wide open fields between the outcrops of trees.
We always set out to capture the closest 3D aural experience we can, so with a pair of headphones, you can close your eyes and feel yourself present somewhere else, somewhere perhaps more natural, and peaceful, but without our human presence disturbing the nature that lives there. As dawn breaks over a wood in Suffolk, the mics capture, almost close enough to touch, a rare experience of small furry animals, scampering about with each other, on the crisp summer-dry forest floor.
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Thanks for listening and for spreading the word about Radio Lento, a self-funded podcast helped by listener recommendations and donations. Last May we went to the Podcast Show in London and walked about feeling like ducks out of water! Ad spend, business plans, audience growth and sales. We're typing this in a Youth Hostel far far away, with the mics still out on their overnight record, and being pelted by rain, we feel much better.
Here's where to listen to the full episodes featured in this daydream:
181 Woodland scapes special - August intermission 3
180 Coastal scapes special - August intermission 2
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)
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