Solstice soundscapes
Binaural Head Maiden Voyage
For many years now I have made a point of being outdoors to experience the Solstice in late June as Spring moves into Summer across the longest day, and the days then gradually start to shorten. The longest day this year was June 21st, which afforded us a full 16 hours, 36 minutes and 13 seconds of daylight. At this time of year there isn't officially any night, so what people deem as 'night' is actually the various stages of twilight; civil, nautical, astronomical. From May 19th to July 24th official 'night' is replaced by extended Astronomical Twilight, meaning in lay-mans terms, it generally doesn't get that dark in July. It also means that to fully appreciate the sonic movement from dark through dawn in the morning around this time a very early rise is needed.
Making things even more exciting (if you could imagine such a thing!) this years Solstice marked the maiden outdoor recording voyage for my binaural dummy head. To get to this point i had built the dummy head and run a number of tests, but realised very quickly that more than a gentle breeze was causing wind noise problems and this had to be sorted, as anyone who lives in the UK will attest to the weather having a habit of being quite changeable, even in the summer months.
[wind protection]
Building wind protection has become a familiar activity, mostly due to the various iterations of stereo recording systems i have built and tweaked over the years. So i had some points of reference to work from on this build. The aim was to look like a pair of fluffy ear muffs, but practically speaking they had to do more than just look fluffy, so i opted for two layers of wind protection with a thin wire frame. having two layers gives the option in future to remove a layer for lower wind levels.
[red light blue head in woodland]
For this years solstice recording I returned to a woodland spot that i know well and with it now being June i was expecting some noticeable change. The first thing i heard on entering the woodland was a light flickering of leaves, and on moving in further towards the recording spot this flickering had grown into a swirling breeze, solid and clear yet not too powerful, and no rain. The Spring growth of foliage had completely filled what was low level scrub in an open clearing only a matter of weeks ago. The resulting dampened acoustic of the space was noticeable, although the predominant sonic was the wind, which you could feel moving around the trees from low to high, in and out. Young owls in the borders were the only animal sounds heard before the sparse chorus started with Robin and Thrush vying for attention as Civil twilight subsided into new dawn light.
[binaural solstice audio clip]
It's interesting how the sonics compare from April through June; plant life grows and fills the previously live spaces. As my location was on the west side of the hills, to see the sunrise at 04:47 would mean a quick pack down and trek back up the valley and onto the closest ridge line. Up high there was a cutting chill in the air compared to the warmth and cover of the woodland, but of course it is always worth it.
[solstice sunrise]
