Kentucky Swamp
Kentucky Swamp - April 15, 1995 at 11pm. Land Between the Lakes, near Energy Lake, Kentucky. © Lang Elliott. Image shutterstock modified.
Note: The recording featured above is a "3D binaural soundscape". Please wear headphones for a profound listening experience that will make you think you're actually out there, immersed in the natural world!
Land Between the Lakes is one of our favorite locations for enjoying the sounds of nature. One year, we visit in mid-April and arrive just as the sun sets. The scene is exquisite, with a white-tailed deer silhouetted against the red sky. As darkness descends, we make our way to a swampy area next to a lake and are shocked by the number of whip-poor-wills, their repeated songs mixing with the bright notes of spring peepers and the chirps of field crickets.
Great blue herons croak excitedly from the far side of the swamp, their raspy talkings lasting for quite a long time. We also hear the tail slaps of a beaver, chewing sounds, and the chuckling of distant leopard frogs. And that’s not all … a deer suddenly snorts and pounds its hooves against the ground, eventually bounding away. Minutes later, another does the same.
What an amazing night chorus … so alive and full of sounds. We pray that generations to come will also behold such splendor, nature speaking in countless tongues!
My Thoughts:
This recording is "bustling with sound." There is not a moment of stillness for the entire duration. No possibility of listening to the silence that cradles the concert, the void from which it emanates. Normally, this would mean that the soundscape is mostly engaging or captivating and therefore not a good candidate for meditation or relaxation; there's simply too much going on. But is this actually true?
Rather than try to answer that question myself, I ask you, my audience of listeners, to chime-in. Let me know what you think ... is it meditative, relaxing, engaging, captivating or what? Where does this recording fit in the grand scheme of nature soundscape appreciation?
Please share your thoughts below!
Naturally Yours,
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Comment Section
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What a gorgeous recording, Lang! I’d go with “engaging and captivating.”
A true joy to sit and listen to as are all of your recordings, Lang. Thank you for exposing all of us to what is real…
Like another commenter wrote, the sound of the whippoorwills brought me back to my youth during summertime porch evenings in very rural New Hampshire. I just love the sound of their call and miss hearing them in suburban Maryland. And the spring peepers!! In NH, the sound of the spring peepers brought such joy and peace after a long cold winter. Thank you for this recording. I love it so much!!
Like Bob, I was actively listening, trying to ID all the sounds. But I forced myself to relax and listen to the blending of sounds and found it very enjoyable.
Yes, homemade and it worked very well with my small Dan Gibson parabola, modified at for use with a Shure SM81 cardioid mic facing inward. The setup worked great for stalking in brushy areas where a larger parabola would be a nuisance. I also had a Shure Low Cut adapter placed inline to tame wind distortion.
I just LOVE this recording!!!! It is so therapeutic and relaxing to listen to! Thank you for recording this!!! :-))
I love every minute of this recording, for many reasons. Of course the whippoorwills are the best, but all the other sounds make me want to move there. Could I do that without the bugs? Kidding.
Actually, I’ve never had any serious “bug” problems at Land Between the Lakes. Sure, some mosquitoes, but nothing really bad.
This is my favorite recording that you have sent recently. All of the others you have sent have water either burbling, lapping etc. That only puts me to sleep and is a distraction from the animal sounds. This one is very clear and relaxing but not sleep inducing.
I will try to post more recordings where water is absent. Also some more engaging recordings to help offset my abundance of meditative sleepy-time wonders.
Delightful! I’m a 92 year old woman who loves nothing more than ‘wanderdawdle’ (a new word I made up) in the woods, especially around wetlands.where there’s action. Thank you for sharing your records.
Wanderdawdle …great word, so apt for what a lot of us do in nature. I googled it and it appears that nobody else on earth has used that word .. except you and now me of course..
Beautiful
One might envision different ways of listening, with each listener being most comfortable in one domain or the other. For instance, some listeners may lean toward an analytic interpretation, focusing on identifying the different sounds making up a soundscape, especially the species involved. At another extreme, a listener might not strive to identify or separate, but will be focused the whole, and on the overall sensation of the sound-field itself—the “felt” experience. Or, possibly with practice, one might move oneself from one domain to the other, and back again, at will, thereby enjoying the benefits of both approaches. Many years… Read more »
Poor little whippoorwill needs to take a breath. Rush hour can be more chill. I love the recording. Great work to music.
My conclusion is that they practice a special form of “circular breathing,” as do the Tibetan Gyuto monks, so as to produce continuous sound while singing, without breath sounds.
: >)
First time i used headphones to listen to one of your soundscapes … so very cool and definitely engaging! Back in the Adirondacks now, we depend on spring peepers and summer loons for night-time delight… plus owls and the occasional coyote or bob cat. Pretty quiet now after a long, cold winter and snow still melting.
We rather miss the southern night-time buzz of crickets, katydids, whippoorwills and even the intense racket of cicadas. I will be listening more attentively inspired by your soundscapes.
Nancy: Glad that you checked out headphone listening—deep appreciation of binaural soundscapes basically requires that mode of listening. So you’re back in the Adirdondacks? Permanently? And in the Paul Smiths area?
Eventful! Love it.
definitely “eventful!”
Captivating – yes! But to me this is not particularly relaxing. The energy level is high, and I find myself focusing on who/which animal is present and imagining what they might be doing. In other words, I am drawn deep into the scene instead of letting my attention go.
Yup, that is probably how most people will feel about it, but there certainly is an element of mesmerization, due primarily to the whip-poor-wills. It will be interesting to find out what others experience.
Those whippoorwills in your recording took me back to my summertime visits to my grandparents’ farm in very rural Middle Georgia near the Ocmulgee River. My Grandad and I would sit on the porch after supper while the sun went down and the “Dusk Chorus” of whippoorwills and their night-bird kin cranked up. So, yes, I found your Kentucky recording very soothing and relaxing.
Excellent! So the whip-poor-wills evoke fond memories. Their melody is wonderful to behold, especially when heard in the distance. But when one lands near your tent in the middle of the night and goes on and on forever … well, that is another matter entirely.
Hi Lang! This comment reminded me that music’s protective effect against Alzheimer’s is deeply connected to nostalgia. It made me wonder how our ability to listen to nature, to connect emotionally to the sounds of wildlife, has correlated with cognitive decline. I think that your world of field recordings has really opened me up to a broader sense of what music is.
Why thank you, Marynek!
Thurber wrote a short story about a man being driven to violence after hearing a whip-poor-will’s incessant song! Someday, I hope to hear one. Yes, may the music of nature continue for generations to come! I wish I could hear more of it, but I live in a noisy urban area, so I am especially thankful for your recordings and happy for your trips! I like how you include the map with your locations. Thank you, Lang! And I am enjoying all of the other listeners’ comments!
Hi Lang,
Wow! This might be the noisiest soundscape of your’s that I’ve ever heard. It was fun trying to separate out all of the sounds. At moments I just let that go and it became totally mesmerizing, so in a way it was a sort of meditation. Loved it!
Actually, I have gobs and gobs of very engaging, busy soundscapes, but in general I avoid posting them … at least these days when I have a more meditative focus. But many of those recordings are bound to leak-out at some point because they are often quite interesting and captivating, and definitely educational.
What a nice recording. That would make the perfect backyard for me.
Quite an idyllic of nature setting for sure, that wonderful swampy area in Land Between the Lakes. No wonder I keep gravitating towards that location (in spite of problematic boat noise on nearby Energy Lake). How many times have I visited that spot? I should count them up, but I’m sure it is somewhere close to 50 visits (or more) over a period of 40 years. I first came across that swamp way back in 1988, during my first ambitious recording expedition with my friend Ted Mack. See attached; that is Ted on the right. Those were parabola-mic days. I… Read more »
Love the “gun stock” mounts for the parabolas. Did you make those yourself?