Enquiring Ear

Field recording and found sounds

Category: soundscape

recordings of specific locations with distinctive sounds which clearly define the location.

  • Nightingale on the heath

    My bike ride to work takes me past open fields and for a short stretch over some sandy heathland. I was surprised to hear a nightingale in the distance – I had to stop and listen to the lovely sound

    this was recorded using an omni MP3 recorder so it’s not a fantastic species recording, but it captures the moment for me 🙂 The singing males have come all the way from Africa, and they have scouted their territories. They are hoping to call the females down from the sky as they arrive a couple of weeks later. It feels surprisingly early to hear nightingale song at the moment.

  • Campsea Ash Auction Rooms

    Campsea Ash Auction Rooms

    Auction in progress, classic auction patter

    The livestock and game auctions at Campsea Ashe bring out a whole much of characters, full of good old Suffolk boys with strong accents. And a few loud cocks too

    Loud cocks

  • Southwold Footbridge Ripples

    Southwold Footbridge Ripples

    Windy recording of the ripples lapping at the mudbanks by the Southwold Footbridge

    It was a seriously windy day, good for ripples but not so good for the recording.

  • Under The Pier show soundmark

    Tim Hunkin’s madcap creations at the Under the Pier show at Southwold have their own soundmarks. This rhythmic squeak from the animated sign is the one that most reminds me of this attraction.

    Southwold Under the Pier show

  • Christchurch Park Mistle Thrush

    In Christchurch Park in the centre of Ipswich near the Mansion, there was this mistle thrush giving off the football rattle sound, a welcome piece of wildlife in the town centre on a freezing day. Somehow the city sounds in the background give him some edge, even though it’s hardly a classic species recording.

    The sudden boost at the end is the bird diving off to take up some issue with a bird in a yew in the graveyard

  • Snape Snippet

    Snape Snippet

    As the pied wagtails swoop over the concert hall that backs onto the reedbeds sighing in the wind, a middle-aged couple climb the steps, the guy sounding knowledgeable, to impress the lady maybe? Or perhaps a couple that have been together for years. The accents are just as you’d expect, middle-class, ever so slightly affected.

    The hysterical horse is a bronze sculpture in the distance, looking out over the reeds

  • Nightjar on Blaxhall Heath

    Nightjar on Blaxhall heath
    Nightjar on Blaxhall heath

    The mating call of the nightjar is a very strange churring sound, usually made around dusk, hence the ropey photo. The sound is eerie, as most other birds have stopped by the time this call is made. The claps are wingbeats.

  • Norwich Cathedral Sheriff Wine Event hubbub

    Norwich Cathedral Sheriff Wine Event hubbub

    Binaural crowd recording from this Norwich cathedral centenary when the Sheriff was hosting a wine event.

  • Market Trader Selling Bananas

    Market Trader Selling Bananas

    This guy had chutzpah. setting up with a few boxes of bananas and the aim of flogging them all in a day. He delivered his patter with gusto

  • Poundland Ipswich opening fun day

    Poundland have taken over the old Woolworth’s store in Ipswich at the end of Spetember, and held a Family Fun Day today. I hven’t worked out what the family fun was meant to be apart from getting people to throng to buy poorly made tools, tat and thneeds but it certainly caused a massive queue so at least Mr Poundland was having a fun day.

    A long queue snaked past the tills, the hubbub was really quite remarkable. I don’t recall seeing this many people in Woolies.

    Poundland Fun day hubbub

    Poundland Fun Day queues
    Poundland Fun Day queues

    Some more rich pickings from the 6th Oct, the Halloween displays are in full swing, and a minute of classy comments 🙂 A bunch of teenage girls are looking to spice up their costumes, one teenage boy charges his mate with looking like a woman in that, and a lady desperately trying to get someone of a mobile phone to erase her messages, all in the space of a minute.

    Poundland comments