Audio Snapshots

Environmental Recordings by Haworth Hodgkinson

During 2020, circumstances have meant I've had to travel back and forth between Aberdeenshire and Lancashire several times, and I've been collecting samples of environmental sounds in both areas. My intention is that I will make these into a composition for release early in 2021, but in the mean time I will post some of the audio snapshots here as a kind of diary in sound.

Latest additions: Loudon Wood Stone Circle and Hell's Lum.

26 January 2020: Aberdour Bay, Aberdeenshire

At the beginning of the year I had plans to make recordings of the pebble beach at Aberdour, also known as the Drostan Shore, every month for the whole year. By late January I still hadn't made the first recording, and I was called away urgently to Lancashire, so my only option was to make the recording that night before travelling south the following morning.

13 March 2020: Morecambe, Lancashire

Just before lockdown, I was in Morecambe, Lancashire, visiting the Time and Tide Bell, one of a series of bells that are sounded by the sea at high tide, installed at various locations around the coast of Britain.

15 March 2020: Irwell Vale, Lancashire

The last train for Rawtenstall leaves Irwell Vale station on the preserved East Lancashire Railway.

11 July 2020: Cruden Bay, Aberdeenshire

I spent lockdown in Aberdeenshire, and one thing I missed was having access to the sea. After travel restrictions were eased I visited Port Erroll Harbour in Cruden Bay, my closest point of contact with the sea.

13 August 2020: Peterhead, Aberdeenshire

A late summer afternoon in Peterhead town centre.

21 September 2020: Haddo Country Park, Aberdeenshire

The Upper Lake at Haddo Country Park is a popular visitor attraction, and is home to many geese, ducks, swans and other birds.

1 October 2020: Ox Hey Clough, Lancashire / Greater Manchester

On a walk along Moor Road from Holcombe to Helmshore I stopped to record the stream that marks the county boundary between Greater Manchester and Lancashire.

15 October 2020: Kintore, Aberdeenshire

The first day of operation for the new railway station at Kintore.

1 November 2020: Loudon Wood Stone Circle, Aberdeenshire

During Storm Aiden I took a walk to Loudon Wood Stone Circle, where it was surprisingly sheltered. Nevertheless, the wind can be heard whistling in the surrounding trees.

5 November 2020: Hell's Lum, Aberdeenshire

Hell's Lum is a huge chasm in a hillside, with the sea slopping around at the bottom. Subterranean cavities boom and resound with the incoming waves.

© Haworth Hodgkinson 2020