Last week I spent a few lovely days in Bristol attending Wildscreen film festival. It was my first time at Wildscreen and I had a chance to hang out with some very cool people who work on natural history productions. I mostly spend my days in my studio or out in the field so this was a rare luxury for me.

Besides hanging out and discussing wildlife filmmaking, several natural history films were screened on a big Imax screen. Two of the films on the Official Selection list were of particular interest to me because they are made with some of my sound recordings.

Antarctica Unearthed, directed by the multi-talented Ariel Waldman with sound design and mixing by Nathan Moody, follows the filmmaker and explorer’s journey as she documents Antarctica’s extreme environments looking for minuscule creatures that call this Mars-like environment home. My good friend Nathan Moody used a lot of my lifeless wind soundscapes recorded in deserts to bring this film to life. Ariel was at Wildscreen and it was lovely to hear her talk about her experience and to discuss expeditions with her.

ØYEBLIKK/EYE-TO-EYE tells the story of life in a remote part of Norway at a time when officials are selling rights to exploit the land and water in the area. Filmmakers Siri Linn Brandsøy and Lasse Huldt Pedersen worked with sound designer Kjetil Høydal, who used my recordings from Norway and Sweden in this timely and poignant film. It was lovely to meet and hang out with them at Wildscreen.

Lastly, I finally found out what audio post-production specialists Owen Shirley and Owen Peters have been up to. Last year when I visited Bristol they hinted they had used my recordings from Central Africa in something very cool, but they weren’t at liberty to discuss it. Well, the project has finally been released and they were able to share with me that it was Silverback with Vianet Djenguet. Needless to say I was very excited to find out about it. Watching it reminded me of my experiences in Gabon 6 years ago (which is when I got the image at the top of this post).

I’m back in the studio for a few weeks and then off to some very cold lands. Namaste!

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.