Field Recordings

Field Recordings

A podcast where audio-makers stand silently in fields.

  • 1 minute 39 seconds
    Saucepan Symphony, Cobh, Ireland in November 2022 – by Damian Drohan

    “I placed a hydrophone at the bottom of a large well-used saucepan and part filled it. The recording was a little disappointing, then I started playing with the speed and frequency of drips from the tap and managed to approximate a driving, but rather bass-free beat with a hint of melody.”

    8 April 2025, 9:48 am
  • 6 minutes 48 seconds
    Spring early morning in South East London, UK on 7th April 2025 – by Cesar Gimeno Lavin

    “Every morning, specially in the fine weather we are currently enjoying, I come out to listen to the birds, which all seem to be specially loud, managing to almost drown all the city noises.”

    8 April 2025, 9:43 am
  • 2 minutes 32 seconds
    The ‘Largest Arcade in the World’, Brookfield, Illinois, USA on 20th March 2025 – by Jackson Roach

    “Galloping Ghost Arcade in Brookfield, Illinois, claims to be the largest video game arcade in the world. They have over 1,030 arcade games, dating back to the 1970s. When I went on a recent Thursday night around 7pm, for a friend’s birthday, almost nobody else was there.”

    3 April 2025, 7:19 pm
  • 1 minute 58 seconds
    The last performance of the world’s largest pipe organ, Philadelphia, USA on 22nd March 2025 – by Alex Lewis

    “Thousands of people gathered on Saturday, March 22nd at Macy’s in Philadelphia, PA to hear the last performances of the Wanamaker Organ – possibly the world’s largest pipe organ – as the department store marked its final weekend in business. This is an excerpt from the final recital by John Wanamaker Grand Court Organist Peter Richard Conte. My wife gave this piece the unofficial title: ‘an elegy for in-person shopping’.”

    25 March 2025, 7:49 pm
  • 1 minute 53 seconds
    Squeaky frogs, Watcarrick, near Eskdalemuir, Scotland on 25th March 2025 – by Geoff McQueen
    25 March 2025, 7:45 pm
  • 3 minutes 51 seconds
    Punta del Hidalgo’s night sea swell, Tenerife in March 2025 – by Tash Walker

    “This recording is taken just off of the pier around midnight. The sea was so full of character I was completely enthralled and if you listen carefully you can hear the strong tide pulling the lava rock out to sea with it. I completely fell for its whispers and it was a real struggle to pull myself away to sleep.”

    20 March 2025, 4:22 pm
  • 3 minutes 18 seconds
    Dead leaves on a silver birch, Stanton Moor, Derbyshire, UK on 5th February 2025 – by Rose de Larrabeiti

    “I took myself to Derbyshire for a few days in early February. I walked up to Stanton Moor with my dog Rosie (not named by me!) looking for a Bronze Age stone circle called the Nine Ladies. Nearby were silver birches with their dead brown leaves rustling in the wind.”

    10 March 2025, 11:58 am
  • 2 minutes 17 seconds
    Outside the bookshop, Berlin, Germany in 2023 – by Damian Drohan

    “A morning recording outside Curious Fox Books, Berlin. Children and adults voices, passing bicycles. General ambience from people socialising, children playing. An S-Bahn train arrives to the nearby Gorlitzer Bahnhof.”

    10 March 2025, 11:52 am
  • 6 minutes 39 seconds
    Fulton Fish Market, NY, USA in January 2025 – by Harrison Malkin

    “It’s quiet time at the Fulton Fish Market — though the forklifts still move fast and beep loudly. A fish hook is an extension of oneself, used to sling tuna, black sea bass, and salmon, from crates to weighing stations.

    The market moved from the South Street Seaport to the Bronx in 2005. Now, it’s in an industrial part of the borough, next to the city’s floating prison Vernon C. Bain Center and Rikers Island.

    It’s mostly wholesale buyers here from restaurants and gourmet markets in the early hours of the morning (open from 2-7 am). There have been less tourists, “cash people,” as they call them, since the market moved from Manhattan.”

    24 February 2025, 5:37 pm
  • 2 minutes 6 seconds
    Geothermal mud pools in Rotorua, Aotearoa (New Zealand) on 8th February 2025 – by Will Coley
    23 February 2025, 3:39 pm
  • 10 minutes 1 second
    ‘Silence’ in Doubtful Sound, Aotearoa (New Zealand) on 15th February 2025 – by Will Coley
    23 February 2025, 3:34 pm
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