SOUNDS NATURAL - PERCY EDWARDS (320kbs-m4a/68mb/30mins)
BBC Radio 4 Extra broadcast: 22nd April 2022
From Willow Warblers to Little Crakes.
Bird-imitator, animal impersonator and entertainer, Percy Edwards discusses his love of the British countryside and, in particular, its birdlife with Derek Jones.
Aided by recordings from the BBC Sound Archive.
Percy Edwards MBE: died aged 88 in 1996.
Producer: John Burton
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in January 1972.
SERIOUSLY... - EIDER ISLAND (320kbs-m4a/64mb/28mins)
BBC Radio 4 podcast: 19th March 2022
An intimate tale of bird-human interdependence. Eider ducks probably nested on Æðey - a small island in the Icelandic Westfjords - long before the first settlers arrived. And when the settlers arrived, the birds continued to nest there. There is one house on the island and, with spring, an extended family of eider farmers gathers from all over Iceland for an annual ritual. The farmers tend to the eider ducks, offering them protection in exchange for a harvest of precious feathers. Acclaimed Danish feature-maker Rikke Houd captures a day - and a centuries old tradition - on Æðey.
Presented and produced by Rikke Houd With specially composed music by Sóley Stefánsdóttir.
A Falling Tree production for BBC Radio 4
BETWEEN THE EARS - FLIGHT OF THE MONARCH (320kbs-m4a/67mb/29mins)
BBC Radio 3 broadcast: 3rd January 2021
Composer and sound artist Rob Mackay traces the migratory route of the monarch butterfly, from the Great Lakes in Canada to the forests of Mexico, via the shifting coastal landscape of the eastern shores of Virginia.
Along the route of this sonic road-movie Rob meets people working to protect this extraordinary species: Darlene Burgess, a conservation specialist monitoring butterfly populations on the shores of Lake Eerie; Nancy Barnhart, coordinating the monarch migration programme for the Coastal Virginia Wildlife Observatory at Kiptopeke State Park, where we also encounter composer Matthew Burtner, whose sonifications of data from the local seagrass beds help track changes in the monarch's environment; and butterfly expert Pablo Jaramillo-López giving a tour of the Sierra Chincua and Cerro Pelón reserves in Mexico. We also hear reflections from the late Lincoln Brower, the American entomologist whose legacy has inspired many of today's research and conservation efforts.
The programme features Rob Mackay's binaural field recordings, and audio from live stream boxes, set up in partnership with the ecological art and technology collective SoundCamp to monitor the monarch's changing habitats. Plus Rob’s own flute playing, recorded in the Mexican forest meadows with David Blink on handpan and trumpet, alongside poetry in Spanish about the monarch by Rolando Rodriguez.
BETWEEN THE EARS - THE LARK DESCENDING (320kbs-m4a/66mb/28mins)
BBC Radio 3 broadcast: 29th May 2022
Half environmental warning, half re-imagining of a classic work - The Lark Descending features the premiere of Hinako Omori's new electronic arrangement of Ralph Vaughan Williams' The Lark Ascending.
When Vaughan Williams wrote his most famous work in 1914, the skylark would have been a ubiquitous presence in the British countryside, but today the skylark is on the "red list" of conservation concern. This bird may have inspired one of the most famous pieces of classical music ever, but now we're facing an increasingly silent sky.
Between The Ears explores what we have lost, presenting The Lark Ascending in a new light, with a fresh, electronic arrangement. Here, the soloist is the skylark itself - captured by sound recordist Chris Watson in Northumberland this spring.
Naturalist and broadcaster Lucy 'Lapwing' Hodson explores the relationship between The Lark Ascending and the birds disappearing from our skies. Along the way, Lucy meets concert violinist Jennifer Pike at Vaughan Williams's childhood home, producer and nature beatboxer Jason Singh, and writer and conservationist Laurence Rose.
150 years after Vaughan Williams was born, the contrast between the popularity of his most famous work and the steady decline of skylark numbers in the UK has never been as stark. Composer Hinako Omori's electronic re-imagining of the piece explores this contrast, in the premiere of her new arrangement Conversation With A Lark.
Produced in binaural sound, immerse yourself in the skylark's world by wearing headphones for the best listening experience.
Credits
Producer: Rebecca Grisedale-Sherry
Mixing Engineer: Marvin Ware
