The UK Soundmap has now entered its six month and is heading towards 1,200 contributions. Those early recordings from Sheffield in July seem to come from long ago as trains are cancelled and the pavements are packed with snow.

Here are a few recordings from the UK Soundmap which mark the passing of the seasons. The rules can be bent slightly by allowing in one made before the project began, and which was later shared with us by the contributor Wild_Soundscape. It's of a dawn chorus with the intensity typical of late Spring:

High summer brought many seaside recordings, ranging from the blowsy pleasures of piers and amusement arcades to footsteps on shingle beaches and, of course, the sound of the surf. This example was sent in by ermine from Minsmere in Suffolk. The binaural method of recording used makes it particularly rewarding to listen to over headphones.

But the good weather wasn't to last. A couple of contributors provided mute and rueful commentaries on the great British August bank holiday as garden barbecues sputtered out under the inevitable downpours. The autumn winds struck up a bleak song as they roiled through a metal gate in the Shetlands, courtesy of rockscottage:

Fireworks rasped and popped in November, and several people have recorded footsteps stirring piles of fallen leaves. More footsteps have recently begun creaking through snowdrifts, a sound that seems to be felt as much as it is heard. Long-standing contributor sc_r shared this recording of a garden bonfire, the thought of which is now welcome.

 

Ian Rawes
Editor, UK Soundmap

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