Sylvan Sounds (2018-2019)
Field recording excerpts from Liz K Miller's doctoral research project:
Sylvan Sounds - Connecting with the Forest through Listening and Sound Visualisation.
This research uses listening to engage with the woodland environment and field recording to gather sounds of sylvan processes. Sounds made by, and within, trees, are often unnoticed and inaudible, such as susurrations, transpiration, and recycling of tree matter.
Please listen with headphones for best sound quality
Clocaenog Forest, Denbighshire, North Wales
5th April 2018
Recorded with stereo omni microphones
Blackheath Forest, Surrey, Southeast England
7th June 2019
Recorded with stereo omni microphones
Forest of Mar, Cairngorms National Park, Aberdeenshire, Northeast Scotland
8th June 2018
Recorded with stereo contact microphones
Caledonian Forest, Glen Affric, Highlands, Northwest Scotland
5th April 2019
Recorded with stereo contact microphones
Scott’s Wood, Helford River, Lizard Peninsula, Cornwall, Southwest England
18th August 2018
Recorded with Alex Metcalf's Tree Listening Device
Caledonian Forest, Glen Affric, Highlands, Northwest Scotland
3rd April 2019
Recorded with stereo omni microphones
Blackheath Forest, Surrey, Southeast England
7th June 2019
Recorded with stereo hydrophones
Forest of Mar, Cairngorms National Park, Aberdeenshire, Northeast Scotland
8th June 2018
Recorded with stereo contact microphones
Blackheath Forest, Surrey, Southeast England
8th May 2019
Recorded with stereo omni microphones
Podcast: Listening to Trees
This podcast presents soundscapes of rustling leaves and cracking pines from Blackheath Forest in the Surrey hills and Clocaenog Forest in North Wales. Alongside these field recordings, Liz K Miller discusses the common terminologies used by soundscape ecologists to describe different types of sound which are (broadly speaking) animal sounds, human sounds and elemental earth sounds. Liz shows how these categories fail to capture the soundscape of trees, and asks where the sounds made by trees fit into this lexicon and study of sound. Trees are an essential part of the ecosystem but, as yet, have no place in our classification system. She presents a new category for these familiar yet often overlooked sounds, and asks what can we learn from listening to trees.