Listen
Tip: press play to see the sound's live frequency spectrum in blue over the waveform.
Recordist's notes
After a lovely walk around the headland trying to photograph and record sheep, myself, Kait and Lisa had a picnic. One feature of this picnic was some tasty Shetland ale, and carrying the empty glass beer bottle back across the island, I was delighted by the sound of the wind playing over the top of it, and the flute-like tones that emanated. When we got down to the beach, I searched for a spot in the sand where the bottle might catch the wind in a similar way, and - once I found such a spot - buried it there. I popped my EDIROL R-09 with furry Rycote cover down in the sand beside it, and left everything there to sing while I went to record the sand and the water by the shoreline. When I listened back to the recording, I discovered that a small fly had taken an interest in the set up, and so what you can hear in this recording are the waves bearing down on the beach, the wind blowing across the emptied beer bottle, and the tiny insect buzzing around near the microphones. This is an excerpt from a much longer recording.
Context
Equipment mentioned: Roland / Edirol R-05 & R-09. Compact Roland/Edirol recorders that were popular for early sound-map contributions.
Recorded nearby
Listening under the sand
B9122
Catching the sounds of the sea and the sand
3 Hayhoull Place
The wind in the rushes on St. Ninian's Isle
B9122
Elizabeth Johnston AKA Shetland Handspun, spinning Shetland wool on…
Scousburgh at Vanlop Rd End on B9122
Rocking an old wooden crib in front of a peat fire
A970
Open Peat Fire
A970
More by Felicity Ford
White stones cafe - White Stones Cafe - retracing Joe's footsteps…
Weymouth, United Kingdom
White stones cafe - White Stones Cafe Sculpture Garden stone wall…
Weymouth, United Kingdom
Robin singing in Winter
Reading, United Kingdom
Creaky train between Waterloo East and London Bridge
London, United Kingdom
Doves fluttering
Fleet, United Kingdom
Owls and jackdaws
Winchester, United Kingdom
More wind recordings
Sources & credits
- “On the sand, St Ninian's Isle, Shetland, UK - The wind blowing over a beer bottle buried in the sand” by Felicity Ford – CC BY-SA 3.0 · radio aporee ::: maps via Internet Archive
- Reverse geocoding: GeoNames – CC BY 4.0