After last year's trip to Senegal I think it's time I did a rainforest trip. I still want to go to Africa, so the Congo river basin looks like the best place to do it. The Congo rainforest is the second largest in the world after the Amazon rainforest and is home to a staggering numbers of species. Figures like 400 mammal species, over 1000 bird species show just how diverse this remote part of the world is.

For last year's trip I asked a few friends and acquaintances if they wanted to join me, and really enjoyed the company of fellow sound recordist Matt from New York. It's been both an enjoyable and a learning experience, so this year I want to do it again. For this purpose I created a new page on my website where anyone interested can join and sign up for updates.

A rough plan is to land and spend the better part of the trip in Gabon. From here we can drive into Congo-Brazzaville and Cameroon. Main targets are the national parks, but Gabon's population is heavily urbanized (surprisingly) so we should easily find good recording spots outside towns. Add to that the fact that more than 85% of Gabon's surface is covered in forest and it should offer excellent recording opportunities.

I will post more about this after I've looked into it more in detail. This part of the world is not the most accessible from a safety and logistics point of view, but I'm sure that with a little research and a lot of patience an expedition can be arranged.

Field recording tools of the trade

At the lower end of the price spectrum, field recording equipment will yield relatively similar results. A few dB of self noise won’t make a huge difference if the recordist hasn’t mastered the other tools of the trade, the ones that can’t be bought. Let’s examine some lesser known but rather more important tools that are sure to improve your field recording practice.

Introduction to Freestyle field recording

Freestyle field recording is a flexible approach to recording nature and wildlife sounds outside of the studio or any controlled environment, developed by George Vlad. While traditional methods are prescriptive and rigid, Freestyle field recording encourages deliberate experimentation and a very organic workflow.

Listening session at the House of Lords in Westminster

I recently received an invitation to play some of my soundscapes and to tell stories about conservation. While there’s nothing unusual about that, the setting was definitely novel for me.

A collection of Owl sounds

Owls are awesome and worth learning about. What better place to start than a curated selection of owl recordings, captured by your favourite wildlife sound recordist!

The 2025 Soundscape Fund

How can field recording make a difference for conservation and environmental causes? I get this question a lot, and one of the answers is here. Once a year I team up with Thomas Rex Beverly and Andy Martin to raise money for environmental NGOs.