I’ve been in Madagascar’s capital for a few days, preparing for my upcoming expedition and exploring the city on foot with my cameras and recorders.

I’ve managed to record a lot of city life, from busy road traffic to quiet residential pockets. With the help of my guide Tolotra, I set up a recording rig on the roof of a house and let it record for more than 24 hours. This way I captured a fascinating slice of life in the community, from early morning to late evening and into the night.

One of my favourite recordings I made here has to be market soundscapes. I spent half a day walking around a lively and colourful market, stopping every few minutes and immersing myself into the vibrant visuals, sounds and smells.

I need to wrap up some game audio work before I fly to more remote parts of the island tomorrow morning. I will be off the grid for a while, focusing on wildlife, nature and rural life. I’m not sure what to expect in terms of soundscapes but I have a feeling I won’t be disappointed. More updates soon.

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.