Ashley Elsdon: Recordings

The sound of drilling from the other side of the wall

On a train pulling into Bath

Again from the visit this month to this lovely beach

A recording from Winchelsea Beach, which is a wonderful place. Very peaceful and calm.

A brief recording of the church bells

I find the sound of this very soothing, so I thought I would share it with you.

A recording of part of the trip to Bristol

This was a trip on the number 36 bus to Paddington. The heater in the bus was really noisy, so of course I recorded it.

Standing under a shelter in some heavy rain

I have edited together a handful of recordings I made whilst staying in a treehouse in Sussex called the Buzzardry. The collage begins near water and you can hear a family walking nearby. It continues with a selection of other water recordings followed by a longer section where I put my Zoom H2N on a table and just let it record for while. I especially like the part where a bee decides to investigate the recorder, and of course the ducks who make their presence known throughout.

I had some professional cleaners in to deep clean a property. I arrived just before they were finished and quite liked the sound that the cleaner made.

Last night / this morning we had a huge storm. If you're in the south of england then you probably heard it too. The lightening was going every few seconds and the thunder was almost constant. It kept me awake so I thought I would record it. The image I used was one of the lightening flashes around 1am. It lit up the entire sky.

Another recycling centre recording

Recycling my stuff so I thought I would make a little recording of the trip

This is part of a much larger recording, but this bit was quite interesting

Standing in the chip shop waiting. It struck me that there was a very unique sound, so I took this recording.

I couple of recordings of a level crossing near where I work.

We had some heavy rain, which is a sound I have always enjoyed. So I recorded it with my zoom h2n.

I recorded this on a train from Wakefield Westgate to Pontefract Tanshelf. Only a journey of 20 minutes, but filled with sounds.

I was in this gallery at an exhibition on the Sussex landscapes. It was quite good overall, so I thought I'd record a short amount of the sonic landscape in the gallery.

This is actually three recordings of the river Thames taken in the morning, midday and afternoon on the 20th of Feb. Enjoy!

When you listen to this you might not know what it is. I was walking in to a local station and I heard this. It was actually the lift to the platform. Normally it would announce 'platform' when it gets to the platform, but something was obviously broken and all it was doing was repeating 'pla, pla, pla, pla, pla, pla, pla, pla'. I was in something of a rush so I was only able to grab a few seconds of it, but I thought it was really good. Recorded with an Apple Watch.

I tend to be in this location once a week and I seem to have fallen into a pattern of standing and looking at the river and recording the sounds there.

I was walking to an event and I could hear this even with noise cancelling headphones on it was so loud. It's only a very short recording, but I thought I'd share it. Recorded with an apple watch.

I've met this guard on the train before. He is so helpful and cheerful he makes even the most mundane trip seem good. He was chatting on this trip and I managed to record a little of him

I made this recording by the Thames, kind of halfway between London Bridge and Cannon Street. It was a bright day and there were people around and tourist boats coming down the river and building work going on. It was recorded on an Apple Watch.

I got this new espresso maker at Christmas and I've been meaning to try it out for a while now. Today was the day and I decided to record the sound of it, or, to be more precise, the entire process. The very loud sound at the beginning is me grinding the beans.

I recorded this yesterday during what can only be described as a torrential downpour. Which was lovely to hear and even better not to be in it.

Boxing day always seems to be a time for playing games. This was a particularly noisy game called 'pit' and as members of my family were playing it I thought I would record them all shouting.

If you can remember Bagpuss the cartoon you will probably remember the mice on the mouse organ. This is their song which I recorded from a Bagpuss toy.

I was out for dinner and used the bathroom in the pub we were eating in. The hand towel dispenser made an interesting noise, so I recorded myself using it. This is very short, but I hope you like it.

We have had a lot of rain so far this November, and some of it very heavy indeed. I recorded this in a heavy downpour.

This is a very short recording I took whilst waiting to speak to my local GP practice, and I'd been on the line for a while before I recorded this.

I heard this during a phone call and asked for a recording of it. I really like how creaky it is.

I recorded this on Monday in the City. The area felt a lot louder than normal for some reason. It is mostly traffic noise, and I have no idea why it was busier and more noisy than I am used to on that day.

This is a very short recording from a hotel lift in Edinburgh. Every time I pressed the button for the floor I wanted it made this sound. A bit like a squeaky toy. I found it hilarious so I had to record it.

We took this ferry back from Craignure to Oban I made a recording of the safety warning, which was quite extensive.

The tram from Edinburgh airport to the city centre is an excellent service, and, more than that, it has some lovely noises too. If you listen carefully you can hear a discussion about the smell of muck spreading very early in the recording, and it was very pungent I can tell you.

I was at the Edinburgh Fringe, and, whilst it felt like a smaller festival than it has been in the past, there were still many of the usual features, such as people performing on the street. Either to promote a show, or just to perform. In this case these performers were promoting a show I think. They were very good.

Ok, the title of this recording is a little misleading. This is the sound of the tube from Stockwell to St Pancras. The person I was travelling with asked why the tube made this horrible wailing sound, and I replied 'It's the sound of dead commuters screaming'. It was kind of off the cuff, but the sound does make me think of wailing souls.

I had a few moments and took a walk around a small park in London, listening to the sounds of people, dogs etc. As I was walking there was a bunch of children playing football. I think it was organised, at least as much as that gets. But it was a pleasant sound, so pushed record on my watch. I hope you enjoy it, even though it is brief.

Some more of the brass band at Sanderstead Horticultural show

This is a recording of just the general ambience from the show.

A brass band at the Sanderstead Horticultural show. This local event has been postponed for a couple of years for obvious reasons, so it was great to see it return.

If you listened to the previous recording this will make sense. This is the choir I could hear from inside the pharmacy. They were singing for a charity, but I couldn't tell you which one sadly. They were quite good.

I was aware that they were there, not far from the automatic door, and every time it opened you got a burst of this really quite lovely singing.

Over the weekend we had some heavy rain and I decided to record it using my Zoom H2n. You can hear that the rain tapers off, but it was a good downpour.

Another recording of watering in the garden

As we have been having a spell of hot weather I have been watering the garden. I thought I would make a little recording of it.