A slow weave of some of the past year’s Field Recordings, from a clock repair shop in January to snow falling in December.

Clock repair shop, London, UK on Saturday 22nd January 2022 at 11am – by Andrew Strangeway

“I work in a clock shop in London where we service antique and vintage clocks. This is recorded from my bench on a quiet Saturday morning, there are sounds of repair work and of the various clocks ticking and striking eleven.”

Trumpeter Swans, Sauvie Island Wildlife Area Portland, Oregon, USA on 28th January 2022 – by Jason Hovatter

Transmission Tower, Portland, Oregon, USA on 8th February 2022 – by Jason Hovatter

The bells at St Michael’s Golden-Domed Monastery, Kyiv, Ukraine on Sunday 13th February 2022 at 4.43pm – by Barny Smith

Ironbark Gorge, Victoria, Australia in the early morning on Sunday 20th February 2022 – by Anouk and Camilla Hannan

“Recorded down the coast at a place called Ironbark Gorge early on a sunny Sunday in February this year. Lots of tall eucalypts and tree ferns and sweet tiny finches. Anouk has started taking an interest in recording so she came out with me.”

Woodpeckers by the water, Buckinghamshire, England, in March 2022 – by Paul Ridout

“It’s worth listening for the birds hammering on different instruments.”

Night train, Vedia, Buenos Aires Province, Argentina in April 2022 – by Joaquín Conde

“The sound of a distant night train reaches out to us over the barking dogs and the wind chimes at my parents’ house”

In the gloaming, Eskdalemuir, Scotland on 19th April 2022 – by Geoff McQueen

“Lambs and their mothers. Pheasants shouting and roosting. Other, nicer sounding birds, doing their things. The steady sound of the river at the bottom of the valley. An annoying aeroplane. A peacock!”

Creaky trees at Rannoch Moor, Scottish Highlands, Scotland on 23rd April 2022 – by Steve Urquhart

“I recorded this at dawn, at the edge of a vast forest on the north-west bank of Loch Laidon…the fluctuating wind, swaying a couple of the many thousands of huge pine trees.”

Stream in a forest glade, Ambleside, Cumbria, UK in April 2022 – by Geoff Marsh

“…a lovely little glade in the forests above Ambleside, which was covered in bluebells, and loads of pesky bumblebees feeding off them.”

Rain on the sea, Camber Sands, East Sussex, UK on 23rd May 2022 – by Sam Clements and Louise Owen

“Was hoping to go for a morning swim in the sea, but was so cold the best we could manage was paddle in the shallows under an umbrella.”

Parsley frogs at night, Lérouville, Lorraine, France on 5th June 2022 – by Colin Hunter

“The location was an old disused quarry just outside Lérouville and knowing the toads begin calling after dusk, I arrived early to have time to scope out the location… I captured this recording much later that night, just after midnight, once the birds had fallen silent.”

Lake swim at sunrise, the morning after midsummer, Groß Köris, Germany in June 2022 – by Eleanor McDowall

“Swam out to watch the sun come up across the water. Bats overhead and roosters crowing in the distance.”

Fort Greene Park, Brooklyn, NY, USA in June 2022 – by James T. Green

“Quite an electric afternoon for being in the middle of the week. I went there after seeing Everything Everywhere All At Once, and decided to capture some tape while contemplating my existence.”

Bells on sheep, east of Rome around 7pm on 26th June – by Cosmin Sandu

“I love the randomness they produce and the contrast with the surround and distant car traffic…”

Pondweed bubbles, Raglan Castle moat, Wales, UK in the afternoon on 16th July 2022 – by Paul Ridout

“It was a blazingly hot afternoon and the sunshine on the pondweed in the moat was generating bubbles that were popping all around…”

Sitting in the dark, by the fan, reading and writing emails, London, UK on 19th July 2022 – by Siddharth Khajuria

8pm, rural village garden, Suffolk, UK on 19th July 2022 – by Melissa Harrison

“4 mins of a rural village garden, 29.7 degrees at gone 8pm on the day we broke 40, in the UK’s most water-stressed and lowest-rainfall region, featuring a greenfinch, collared doves, sparrows, swifts, a silent blackbird (they’ve just stopped singing in the last week) and a very persistent wasp.”

Takapou Bay, South Island, New Zealand in August 2022 – by Martin Zaltz Austwick

Katydids in the moonlight, Bearsville, New York, USA on 20th August 2022 – by Joe Dobkin

“I was sitting outside listening to the katydids and the moon.”

Cow chorus in the middle of the road, near Te Kao, New Zealand on 30th August 2022 – by Helen Zaltzman

Thunderstorm through skylight, London, UK at 11.20pm on 5th September 2022 – by Eleanor McDowall

Muffled Bells, Cuddington, Buckinghamshire, UK on 19th September 2022 – by Paul Ridout

“As a republican I probably shouldn’t have enjoyed this as much as I did – the bells in the village church were being rung this morning with muffled clappers so every other peak was soft.”

Binaural bells, St Pauls Cathedral, London, UK on 19th September 2022 – by Joe Harvey-Whyte

“St Paul’s cathedral bells ring for the state funeral on 19th September 2022.”

Enough is Enough National Day of Action, Outside Kings Cross Station, London, UK on 1st October 2022

Dusk chorus, Ewingar, New South Wales, Australia on 16th October 2022 – by Jaye Kranz

“A 300 acre farm in Ewingar NSW. The dusk chorus you can hear from the porch”

Heavy rain, North West London, UK in October 2022 – by Alex Micu

“I would like to share with you a field recording from my garden in NW London. It features this garden furniture cover and raindrops tap dancing on it during a day of heavy rain.”

Winter Bees, Flitwick, Bedfordshire, UK in November 2022 – by Julian Higgs

“Usually they are hunkered down by this time of year, but with the unseasonable weather and temperatures, the girls are still foraging and returning laden with pollen. Also we are still having regular emergences, indicating that the queen is still actively laying.”

Westminster Bridge, London, UK on 5th November 2022

Woman, life, freedom, Iran solidarity protest in Trafalgar Square, London, UK on 26th November 2022

Inside the bell tower, All Hallows, Twickenham on the morning of 16th November 2022 – by Alan Hall

Koliada singers rehearsing for the Christmas season, Le Plateau-Mont-Royal, Montreal, Québec, Canada on 30th November 2022 – by Mira Burt-Wintonick

“A traditional Ukrainian Koliada song – traditionally sung house to house, like a Christmas carol.”

Bells (church and cow) in the hills of Flüeli-Ranft, Switzerland in the evening of 6th December 2022 – by Charlie Shackleton

“There are three churches within earshot of the spot where this recording was made, in the Swiss village of Flüeli-Ranft, and their bells overlap but do not synchronise. A local told me that this is intentional, to ensure their distinct timbres can be clearly distinguished…When all three churches fell silent, I was lucky enough to capture another set of bells—those worn by a herd of cows, invisible to me from my perch above the village stream—until the entire scene was drowned out by an overhead plane.”

Crackling fire and chimes, London, UK on 9th December 2022 – by Eleanor McDowall

Snow falling on the canal, London, UK, near midnight on Sunday 11th December 2022 – by Eleanor McDowall

“Listening to the snow fall on the surface of the water as I walk home. The white blanket underfoot softening the sound of the city.”