Patrick Farmer - Severn Farms Pond. - Free Download.

"Beauty is everywhere a welcome guest" - Goethe.

These five recordings contain a minute glimpse of the auditory world of photosynthesising pondweed (HornWort or ceratophyllum demersum), located at the Montgomeryshire Wildlife Trust nature reserve, Severn Farms Pond. Made audible is the production of teeming oxygen bubbles, the plants using energy from the sun to produce sugar, the beginning of an age old system of process and equilibrium.

These sounds are of a very low audibility, and have been 'picked up' by specialist hydrophones, or underwater microphones. Due to the close proximity of traffic on either side of the reserve, there is a constant low frequency presence, a slight amount of this has been filtered out, but in keeping with a certain aesthetic of representation they are left alone.

The last recording is an example of the sheer weight surrounding the reserve. I kept this because rather than being overwhelming, it is to me, a joyous thing. It shows that such minutiae can exist in any conditions and that intriguing worlds are all around and will continue to exist regardless of our anthropic presence.

Going out and searching for such auditory phenomena as this, I am constantly reminded of what it was like to be a child, intrigued by everything and anything. Always listening and watching, not taking anything for granted. Long may it stay that way.

These recordings owe a debt to Lee Patterson. A wonderful human whose depth of exploration is only exceeded by his humour and dress sense.

Patrick Farmer - Severn Farms Pond. <-- Right click and Save as to download

Montgomeryshire Wildlife Trust

of entropy

Just as the sun was starting to curl up for the night, I was driving from Caersws back home and decided to take a road that I hadn't travelled or investigated for many years, going through Bethel and Bwlch Y Garreg, to where I thought I was going to end up, Tregynon. About 10 years ago I lived up that way in an Observatory, a wonderful and peaceful place. Driving past various farms you always see interesting things, and today the sight of hundreds of Starlings all lined up along the side of the road brought the largest smile to my already lined face.


After many stretching hillsides and gravity defying stone walls I ended up, too my surprise, at a Nature Reserve called Llyn Mawr, or Boggy Heaven. This particular nature reserve is about two Miles from the nearest main road and just a tad north of an old courthouse I used to live in called Neaudd Newydd, and it is without a doubt the most peaceful and relaxing spot that I have come across.


Walking down to the lake I was met by the sights and sounds of Curlews, Rams, and Aberdeen Angus, I believe one was actually giving birth, but most interesting to me was the slight crackling that was becoming more apparent the closer I came to the water. I started running to the shoreline in childish excitement, the best kind of excitement, to be met by what I can only describe as the most fascinating and joyous phenomena that one could ever wish to witness.


I ran back to the car to get my recording equipment (earlier on in the day I had been recording at the Hafren Forest) and by the time I got back to the shoreline the wind had increased to such an extent that cascades of ice were piling ontop of one another. The friction, beginning with the movement of wind and water, creating hordes of delicate patterns all around the edge of the lake.


The atmosphere around Llyn Mawr was balanced in a state of poetic equilibrium, a fleeting series of ectones, by the time I left the shore the ice had whispered away to almost nothing. A sound not unlike wind through trees.