Show Notes
“Sound is life for me.”
The latest installment of the Earth.fm podcast, Wind Is the Original Radio, finds curator Melissa Pons in conversation with sound recordist and expedition leader George Vlad. You can listen to and read George’s work elsewhere on the site - and you may already have heard recordings of his in high-profile projects such as Dune: Part Two and Mufasa: The Lion King, as well as various documentaries, TV series, podcasts, and audiobooks.
The love of George’s life, as a recordist and collector of sounds, is to be among wildlife sounds, trying to understand them, and getting to share them. Though he confesses to being initially fastidious about avoiding anthropophony, he explains that he has become more understanding and flexible, given how reductive it is to imagine that nature is separate from humans (and vice versa): “We are moving forward, whether we like it or not; progress happens: people need to travel and use power tools.” However, though he has become more open to recording people, he draws a line at combustion engines.
He also shares about his journey from being a sound designer, when he originally saw field recordings as purely “tools or assets”, with no appreciation for the ecosystems they originated from. However, informed by his experience of growing up in the Romanian countryside - which taught him the value of loving nature and of living with it rather than trying to control it - he subsequently came to appreciate and take enjoyment from their beauty.
Additional topics addressed during the episode include:
The “heavy question” of decolonising sound recording and working ethically as a recordist outside of one’s home culture. And, how working respectfully with locals can provide information that, as an outsider, he wouldn’t otherwise be privy to - but also the importance of choosing what to share, considering the importance of certain areas to Indigenous peoples
“Being careful, being mindful, trying not to create tension and problems; this is just being a human, being a nice person, having common sense - it's not just about sound recording.” Where some recordists cause damage, ignore local taboos, or go chasing after animals, George has learned to be more mindful, preferring to work with passive-recording drop-rigs, which are not only easier for him, but less disruptive for wildlife
Fellow recordists who see going back to camp and having a cup of tea as ‘cheating’ and consider suffering to add value to the work. While George has taken part in extreme expeditions (for example, in Sumatra and Gabon), “It was tough; I got a bunch of diseases, and it was painful, and I had to come back and spend two months taking antibiotics and trying to get better - but that didn't make the sound recordings better.” Alternatively, sometimes you're in air-conditioned lodges and being driven around (where it's unsafe to walk) - but that this is equally valid. Being attracted to the 'extremeness' of the experiences is ultimately only a way of making everything about yourself, and “that's just focusing on the wrong aspect; the soundscapes and the sound recordings are more valuable than the effort you put in, or the leeches that suck your blood”
Things that George is afraid of in the field - which turns out to not be a lot, something he puts down to being brought up around cats, which can transmit Toxoplasma gondii to humans: a parasitic infection which reduces fear responses and increases risk-taking. However, he does fear losing his kit on a job
Memorable field-recording experiences, including “sleeping on the edge of an active volcano in Ethiopia, without having taken any precautions” against the silica suspended in its gaseous emissions, which can cut up the lungs like broken glass… On the advise of a geologist who turned out not to have any experience of volcanoes
How to incorporate study and research into a busy practice - not a problem when you “find it hard not to read”, and when r
More from Wind Is the Original Radio
The Earth's orbit around the sound finds itself at the point where we, from our planet, measure the sun's relative location exactly above the Equator's, making its way South. This marks the autumnal equinox in the Northern Hemisphere and the vernal equinox and the beginning of spring in the Southern Hemisphere.
Solstice comes from the Latin solstitium - sol (sun) and sistere (to stand still): the moment when the sun appears to pause in its movement. A brief illusion of stillness. The longest day, the fullest expansion of light, and yet, from this very point, transformation has already begun. The brightest moment already carries the beginning of its own disappearance. Gathering recordings captured during different solstices, across distant places and years, this mix follows movements of appearance, disappearance, and return. Each recording holds a specific moment of listening, a fragment of a landscape that has already changed, a trace of something that cannot happen twice in the same way. Some recordings have been split and reintroduced at different moments, creating small cycles inside the composition. They disappear and resurface, carrying the memory of their previous occurrence while being transformed by their new surroundings. Like seasons, tides, or the movement of light, repetition becomes a way of sensing change rather than sameness. Different environments slowly orbit around each other: distant temporalities briefly aligning, moments of stillness revealing movement, and sounds returning as reminders that nothing ever truly stands still.
Welcome to the wind is the original radio podcast!
This hour long mix comprises of field recordings made on and around Spring Equinoxes of various years. It takes you down through the Northern Hemisphere – from my sitting room in East London to a cottage balcony in the tropical forests of Borneo. Listen for Slovenian jackals, Polish moor frogs, a Himalayan shepherd herding sheep, a hippopotamus getting ready for the night in Sierra Leone and choirs of birds singing across the globe.
We are delighted to share a special set by artist Asa 808, a 2-hour journey ideal to softly immersive oneself in the nature sounds, instruments and spoken word.