Thursday 11 October 2012

Brecklands Dawn Chorus

produced by Andrew Flintham

I heard of the recording called Brecklands Dawn Chorus before, but it was the article on BBC website that made me actually get the album and listen to it. Amazon.co.uk credits this CD to “Various Artists”, and in a way they are right. They just don’t know the artists’ exact names. Apparently, most of them are birds performing a dawn chorus. In Breckland.

The CD has just one track, 70 minutes 16 seconds long. So, on my (rather old) CD player, I cannot simply go back a few minutes in case I missed something. But maybe this was the idea? The audio track is unique as it is uninterrupted and unedited. Recording like that is impossible nowadays because of increased noise pollution. In fact, I can hear almost uninterrupted sound of distant motorway (A11?), plus some aircraft, on B.D.C. too. (Oh wait, wasn’t it my washing machine? No.) Back in 1993, The Brecks were not exactly the most isolated part of Britain: RAF stations Lakenheath and Mildenhall are both located there.

It doesn’t matter really. This is an epic record. It also may be referred to as “relaxing” and “soothing”, at least that’s what they write on the CD sleeve. And then there are a few moments which I’d call comical, although I should study bird songs a bit more comprehensively before being able to understand the joke fully. What creature(s) produce(s) the splashing noises at this time of day (4 am?), I cannot tell.

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