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Interview with a Sound Recordist
C2 🎙️ Interview · 510 words · about 4 min
A radio presenter talks to a sound recordist who spends weeks in remote places capturing the voices of the natural world.
Presenter: Joanna, you record the sounds of forests, marshes and mountains. How would you describe your job to a stranger on a train?
Presenter: Joanna, you record the sounds of forests, marshes and mountains. How would you describe your job to a stranger on a train?
Joanna Reyes: I tell them I am a professional eavesdropper. I go to wild places, usually before dawn, and wait for them to say something. Most of the time they say nothing, and I go home. Occasionally something extraordinary happens, and that makes up for dozens of empty mornings.
Joanna Reyes: I tell them I am a professional eavesdropper. I go to wild places, usually before dawn, and wait for them to say something. Most of the time they say nothing, and I go home. Occasionally something extraordinary happens, and that makes up for dozens of empty mornings.
Presenter: What does the waiting actually involve?
Presenter: What does the waiting actually involve?
Joanna Reyes: A great deal of stillness, and a surprising amount of discomfort. I might spend four hours in a ditch, in the cold, with a microphone the size of a baguette pointing at a dead tree. The key is not to move, not to cough, and not to think about breakfast. Over time, you learn that you are never truly alone. The forest rearranges itself around you, as soon as it decides you are harmless.
Joanna Reyes: A great deal of stillness, and a surprising amount of discomfort. I might spend four hours in a ditch, in the cold, with a microphone the size of a baguette pointing at a dead tree. The key is not to move, not to cough, and not to think about breakfast. Over time, you learn that you are never truly alone. The forest rearranges itself around you, as soon as it decides you are harmless.
Presenter: Is there a recording you are especially proud of?
Presenter: Is there a recording you are especially proud of?
Joanna Reyes: Yes, though it is hardly dramatic. Several years ago, I recorded a wetland at sunrise for nearly three hours. There is no single spectacular moment. What you hear is the whole place waking up in layers: first the frogs, then a pair of cranes, then the wind in the reeds, and finally the distant hum of a tractor. When I play it to audiences, people often close their eyes. Afterwards they tell me it was the first time in months that they had listened to something without doing anything else.
Joanna Reyes: Yes, though it is hardly dramatic. Several years ago, I recorded a wetland at sunrise for nearly three hours. There is no single spectacular moment. What you hear is the whole place waking up in layers: first the frogs, then a pair of cranes, then the wind in the reeds, and finally the distant hum of a tractor. When I play it to audiences, people often close their eyes. Afterwards they tell me it was the first time in months that they had listened to something without doing anything else.
Presenter: Has technology changed your work?
Presenter: Has technology changed your work?
Joanna Reyes: Enormously. My first recorder weighed as much as a small child and could hold only forty minutes of material. Now I carry a device that fits in my jacket and records for days. But the essential problem remains: the microphone cannot choose what is important. Only the person holding it can do that, and it takes years to develop an ear for it.
Joanna Reyes: Enormously. My first recorder weighed as much as a small child and could hold only forty minutes of material. Now I carry a device that fits in my jacket and records for days. But the essential problem remains: the microphone cannot choose what is important. Only the person holding it can do that, and it takes years to develop an ear for it.
Presenter: Has your work changed how you hear the world?
Presenter: Has your work changed how you hear the world?
Joanna Reyes: Irreversibly. I cannot walk through a city without noticing the pitch of the traffic or the rhythm of footsteps on different pavements. I find some places physically tiring now because there is simply too much noise. It is as if someone had removed a layer of protection.
Joanna Reyes: Irreversibly. I cannot walk through a city without noticing the pitch of the traffic or the rhythm of footsteps on different pavements. I find some places physically tiring now because there is simply too much noise. It is as if someone had removed a layer of protection.
Presenter: Do you worry that some of these sounds will disappear?
Presenter: Do you worry that some of these sounds will disappear?
Joanna Reyes: I do, and that is part of the motivation. Habitats shrink, and with them the voices they contain. A recording is a small act of preservation, a way of saying that this particular morning existed. Researchers now use old archives to compare the density of birdsong across decades, which is something I could never have predicted when I started.
Joanna Reyes: I do, and that is part of the motivation. Habitats shrink, and with them the voices they contain. A recording is a small act of preservation, a way of saying that this particular morning existed. Researchers now use old archives to compare the density of birdsong across decades, which is something I could never have predicted when I started.
Presenter: Any advice for someone who wants to begin?
Presenter: Any advice for someone who wants to begin?
Joanna Reyes: Choose a spot near your home and sit there for an hour with your eyes closed. Count the different sounds you hear. You will be astonished. Equipment is secondary. The real instrument is your attention, and fortunately it is free.
Joanna Reyes: Choose a spot near your home and sit there for an hour with your eyes closed. Count the different sounds you hear. You will be astonished. Equipment is secondary. The real instrument is your attention, and fortunately it is free.