Hagavik at Þingvallavatn lake. Part 1

In 27th July I decided to cycle with recording gear out of Reykjavik. It was late in the evening when I left my house. Just after I left the street lights, I cycled into dark, wet fog.
I was both whet and cold when I passed the fog on the highest peak of the road in the mountain Hengill.
I waited there almost for two hours in a very calm weather, just to enjoy the prospect. Noise from nearby hydroelectric plant filled the air with a powerful rumbling noise. Below, all around me, was this thick fog and a clear sky above.
I was getting tired when I saw the sun rice above the horizon around 4 am.  After several photo shots I decided to find a place to sleep and feed my recorder with “early morning summer sound”.
On my way, was a place named Hagavik, a very nice cove in the southwest of Þingvallavatn lake. When I arrived, the fog was still very thick. I spread out my bivi sack on a place I remembered I put up my tent for about 35 years ago, when this place was not so popular. It was now a filthy motorist parking and fish hunting place. But, just as in the past, the soundscape was glorious.
Two MKH20 was placed close to the lake and I went to sleep 10 meters away.
The time was about 5:40 in the morning and the atmosphere was very quiet in the fog when the recording start.

Download mp3 file (192kbps / 35,2Mb)

Recorder: Sound Devices 788
Mics: Sennheiser MKH20. AB40 setup
Pics: EOS M (see picture from this bicycle trip)

Flatey í Breiðafirði 2012. part 1

 

Flatey is the biggest island in Breiðafjörður bay in the west of Iceland, but nevertheless a small island. It is a wonderful place. Rich, widely spiced bird life and no car traffic. Most houses are old and most of them are nicely rebuilt. No one lives there all year around but in spring, summer and autumn lot of people stays there. Sometimes the place is overcrowded with tourists but there is both a campsite and a hotel.
I spent few hours in Flatey in June 2012 with my family. We just walked around in this relaxing surroundings. The east part of the island was closed because of bird’s hatch and eyas. But the life in the “village” was also interesting.
Strong gust from vest made recording difficult but I found a quiet place beside a wall not far away from the “main street”. In front of me was a small marsh and it was overcrowded with all kinds of birds; snipe, gull, golden plover, white wagtail, oystercatcher, arctic tern, ducks and so on, but closest to the microphone is a red necked phalarope. In distance Kittiwake and other birds are audible.
I was very lucky this time, there were few tourists on the island so the recording contains relaxing conversations between neighbors in this wonderful ambience. In the beginning a child is drumming a box, but it last only for 5 minutes. After that it is possible to listen what people and birds have to say.


Download mp3 file (192kbps / 37,2Mb)
See more and listen at: www.fieldrecording.net

Recorder: Sound devices 744T
Mic: Audio Technica BP4025
Pics: Canon 30D (See more pictures)

Birds at Seltjarnarnes shore 25th of May 2000

It is not possible every day to record nature sounds in as nice weather condition that was early morning at Seltjarnarnes in 25th of May 2000. Weather was calm and dry. Birds as Black backed Gull, Eurasian Oystercatcher, Common Snipe, Golden Plover and Arctic Tern were everywhere along the shore side, busy with their daily life. Close by, a group of female Common Eider was teaching very young ducklings how to search food.
Just after few minutes, I finished to set up the microphones, the Eiders came so close to the rig it was possible to listen their conversation in smallest details for almost two hours.
The quality of this recording still surprises me. It is one of the latest recording I made with Sony TC-D5M cassette deck with a pair of ME 20 microphones. The key of the quality was the microphone cables. Instead of ordinary mic cables I used CAT6 data cables. It makes extraordinary difference for the high frequency signal. All small details in the recording were cleaner and much brighter.
This recording is part of my second CD release, published in limited edition later the year 2000

Download mp3 file (192kbps / 46Mb)
See more and listen at: www.fieldrecording.net

More Audio from this recording at Xeno-Canto and AudioBoo
Recorder: Sony TC-D5M (TDK MA-90mín).
Mic. Sennheiser K3U / ME20 (40cm/100° apart. Hi-Pass filter on level 1).
Pix: Canon 30D (pictures taken 2010).

Black legged Kittiwake at Arnarstapi

In middle of July my family went in a five days trip around Snæfellsnes peninsula. Of course my recorder follow me as a puppy and I recorded as much as I could days and nights. One of this recordings I made was above a cliff score near Arnarstapi.
The weather was very nice, sunny but a breeze from north-vest so it was calm in the cliffs south of Arnarstapi.
I expanded my boom over the cliff brink and located the microphone in a calm place.
And…. WOW! I got really beautiful ambiance. About 15-20 meters below, the sea wave smoothly stroke the cliffs. Whine black legged Kittiwake flew all around and the cliffs were full of the their tweedy baby’s.
During one hour recording I was totally raped on the cliff edge in this beautiful ambiance.
Close by in next score,  fishermens were working at the dock and some tourist walked by behind me.




Download mp3 file (192kbps / 45Mb)
See more and listen at: www.fieldrecording.net

Recorder: Sound devices 744
Mic: Audio Technica  BP4025
Pix: Canon 30D

Nature reserve in Flói 2012. Part 3

Recordings from Flói nature reserve continues. This two recordings were captured around 3:30 and 4:00 am, 25th of June.
The first recording contains mostly far distance sounds, a quiet relaxing midsummer sound scape. Birds are living their life, flying around and searching for food. Gusts sometimes disturb the recording with rumble sound .
The second recording was recorded around 4 am. It contains the first of many jet flights this morning from Europe to America. Morning sunbeams are now really going to heat the field so clouds of gnats are even thicker than before. A duck with youngsters are pushing their body through rushy field searching for food around the microphone.
Both this recordings are worth to played as a background sound at home or work.

3:30am
Download mp3 file (192kbps / 32Mb)

4:00am
Download mp3 file (192kbps / 31,2Mb)

Recorder: Sound devices 744
Mics: Rode NT1a (NOS setup)
Pix: Canon 30D (See more pictures)
Listen to other parts of  “nature reserve in Flói 2012“

See more and listen at: www.fieldrecording.net

Nature reserve in Flói 2012. Part2

This recording is almost a straight continue from “Nature reserve in Flói 2012 – Part 1” that was recorded inside the bird watching shelter. Now the microphones are in the wetland, about 300 meters from the shelter. This is close to a pond, early morning 25th of June, around 3am. Now and then the gust strokes the field, but later one it gets more quiet.
This was a busy time for all residents in the area so the recording contains a lot of their activity.
Birds searching for food in the pound or in the grass around the microphones, like Red- necked Phalarope, Arctic stern, Red throat Loon and some ducks. Birds pass by with wing flaps. There is also a lonely barking dog, bleating sheep and whinny horses somewhere far away.
When morning sunbeams warm the field and the wind goes calm, billions of gnats start to fly in thick clouds up and down with impressive noise. Many other bird species are audible in this recording like Common Snipe, Golden Ploer, Whimbrel, Gull, Rooster and many other birds I can not named like some young birds. Sometimes young Loon are crying, while other birds sounds like Tod (n.b. no Frogs live in Iceland).
This is a very quiet nature recording so you should not play it loud. You should play it like you think you will hear it trough open window, as a background sound. Best way to listen details and explore all bird species is using quality open headphones This recording contain also very loud session when all Loons in all ponds in the area “scream” a territory call.
Surprisingly it looks like only one or two motorist is audible in this recording, a truck about 20 km away So the soundscape is almost as nice as it gets on our planet.
There is still many hours left of this recording in Flói. It will be published in coming months.

Download mp3 file (192kbps / 40,3Mb)
See more and listen at: www.fieldrecording.net

Recorder: Sound Devices 744T
Mics: Rode NT1a (NOS setup)
Pix: Canon EOS30D (see more pictures)

Sound in Víðgelmir Cave

Víðgelmir is a lava tube situated in Western Iceland in the Hallmundarhraun lava field, ca. 2 km. Southeast from Fljótstunga farm in Hvítársíða, Borgarfjörður. The roof of the lava tube has collapsed, creating two large openings near its north end which are the only known entrances. Viðgelmir is 1585m long, the largest part of the cave passage is 15.8m high and 16.5m wide making it by far the largest of its kind in Iceland. The cave has a wide entrance but narrows down in some places. An iron gate was installed at the first constriction in 1994 to preserve the delicate lava formations or speleothems which haven’t already been destroyed. Evidence of human habitation, probably dating to the Viking age, has been discovered in the cave and is preserved in the National Museum of Iceland. Long stretches of the cave floor are very rough and shouldn’t be navigated without a guide. Access and guided tours are provided at nearby Fljótstunga.
Lava tube caves are formed when a low-viscosity lava flow develops a continuous and hard crust which thickens and forms a roof above the molten lava stream. When the eruption subsides, the still molten lava moving beneath the crust will continue to drain downhill, leaving an open lava tube cave. Many other lava tube caves have been discovered in Hallmundarhraun (formed around 900 AD), most notable Surtshellir and Stefánshellir.(*)
This recording was made 30th of June 2012, close to the entrance, where ice from last winter was still melting. Water drops from the cave roof are falling into differenet places on the floor, in holes in the ice and on stones on rough surfaced floor.
Deeper in the cave there is no dripping water so it is completely quiet. For most people it could be an interesting experience. During the summer people can have guided tour in Viðgelmir, just contact Fljótstunga farm.

Download mp3 file. (192kbps / 28,1Mb)
See more and listen at: www.fieldrecording.net

Recorder. Sound Devices 788
Mic: Rode NT1a (NOS)
Pic: Canon 30D. See more pictures at Google. My camera did not work perfectly in the cave, but anyway here is my picture
(*) Information about the cave is copied from Wikipedia.
 

Opus for power line, bass, wind and birds.

It is not every day when I am free from traffic noise. But when it happens it is possible to notice other small sounds in the surroundings. That happened in beginning of June 2012 when I was at Krossholt at Barðastönd, in the northwest of Iceland. One night someone was playing loud music in the neighborhood. The rumbling bass beat was noticeable all night along. During the night the wind started to blow from east with strong gusts. Suddenly nearby power line started to give a strange sound and the niggling beat from the neighborhood started to be interesting. In combination with the wind, power line, birdsong from the field and nearby cliff it started to be like a music from other planet. In fact it was a really interesting composition. Better than many modern human made compositions today. The intro is more than two minutes long, so just lay back in your chair, relax and listen. High quality headphones are recommended.

Download mp3 file (192kbps / 34,7Mb)
See more and listen at: www.fieldrecording.net

Recorder: Sound Devices 744 (24bit/48Khz)
Mics: Rode NT1a. NOS setup.
Pix: Canon 30D
Interesting link: Wired Lab

White Wagtail in the wind

I and my family spent a bank holiday last weekend in May in Union´s vacation house at Apavatn in south Iceland. The weather was typical for spring. Sunny, but cold and windy.
This was not exactly the best weather to record bird song, or “nice spring mood”, but when I placed the microphones not far away from the house, a White Wagtail gave me a nice tweet as a professional singer close to the microphones.
Not far away was a playground with big trampoline. Most of the background sound is the drumming sound from this trampoline, screaming children and waves from the lake. Through the all recording a weak tweet sound is coming from young bird in nearby nest.
In the end of the recording people are gathering together in a hot tub.

Download mp3 file (192kbps / 24,6mb)
See more and listen at: www.fieldrecording.net      

Recorder: Sound devices 744
Mic: Rode NT2a in spaced omni (60cm AB setup )
Pix: Canon 30D (see more picture)