BBC Radio 3: Sounds of the Earth

‘Sounds of the Earth’ featured my dawn chorus soundscape this week. If you’re a classical music lover like me, you’ll know Martin Handley’s BBC Radio 3 breakfast show, and its Sunday morning Sounds of the Earth slow radio soundscape. This feature would revive me as I returned home, rather jaded, from recording the dawn choruses at the Knepp Castle Estate.

This Sunday, 9 August 2020, it was my turn. They featured my dawn chorus recording (above) from the 31 May. It’s 4.32am and the dawn chorus is in its full glory, a marvelous cacophony. If you listen carefully you can hear two nightingales singing their hearts out, desperate for mates, with the cuckoo and the stork making guest appearances. The full Sounds of the Earth feature, with my soundscape, blended with exquisite classical tracks, included a beautiful piece – White Stork Octet – composed by Helen Ottaway, commissioned to celebrate the first White Storks to breed at Knepp.

Logo for the Arts Council EnglandI started in April 2020 with my audio Nightingale Diaries, which turned stereo in May 2020 assisted by Arts Council England funding. To find out more, see Experimental Work.