early beginnings

During the 1980s I was living in London and working in music - gradually getting more and more fascinated by birdsong and more and more frustrated by the music business. In 1989 I got a portable DAT recorder for my studio and began recording the birds in some of the places I liked to visit: I was immediately captivated by wide stereo recordings, the sound of the whole scene, and not just a single singer. As my enthusiasm grew, I went looking for a CD of this kind of material covering British locations, but was surprised to find nothing filled the space - so began to think maybe I should do it myself.

In 1993 I released Birdsong in Britain and Wildsong was born.

15 years later, there's now an amazing choice of birdsong and natural sound CDs from all around the world and a reasonable selection of homegrown material from various sources - as well as all the bits and pieces available on the internet. Meanwhile we humans continue to run amok in our playroom, planet earth, and year on year natural habitats are degraded, species disappear and the world becomes a noisier place. Recordings of natural soundscapes become important and often unique sonic documents of the world we came from. Will the subtle acoustic spectra of contact calls and the amazing symphonic soundscapes of mass display in a spring dawn, the products of millions of years of evolution in nature, be part of our future world? Who can say.

listening to nature

Listening to and developing an appreciation for the sounds of nature is not some new age thing. People have been fascinated listeners for a long, long time, as evidenced by our older cultures that still have a strong connection with the natural world. Like most mammals, our hearing is a highly-developed radar system keeping us in constant awareness of our environment.

As our contemporary way of life becomes more urban, gradually increasing our separation from nature, listening to natural soundscapes on CD is a way of restoring some connection with both the ways of nature and a more soothing aural environment than the often harshly-mechanical ones we inhabit for much of our lives.

Despite the temptations, Wildsong has remained largely a vehicle for publishing my own recordings. We also stock the series of sound guides I've produced for HarperCollins and we've gradually picked up a selection of CDs and books from associates around the world. My partner Jane helps out with various business admin tasks and is amazingly adaptable to the often unsociable hours I keep.

Whereas most wildlife recordists become travelling collectors, the contemporary equivalent of the Victorian naturalist-explorers hunting specimens, I try to do as much work as I can close to home. As well as reducing costs and travelling time, this also minimises the environmental cost of my recordings and helps engender a deeper understanding of the locations and habitats I work. Stocking sounds from around the world, recorded by people who live and work in the region, accords well with this philosophy.

2008 should see a whole new range to our catalogue and many new features on the website. So stay in touch. And let me say a big thank-you to everyone who has bought my CDs and books over the years: this has helped support and further my work and enabled me to pursue this most fantastic of vocations - listening to and interpreting the music of life.

Geoff Sample

At liquidas avium voces imitarier ore
ante fuit multo quam levia carmina cantu
concelebrare homines possent aurisque iuvare.
Imitating with the mouth the fluid voices of birds
came long before
men were able to harmonize light melodies and please the ear.

Lucretius (94-55BC) De Rerum Natura