The Relaxing Silence in the Woods

Nature for the most part is pretty quiet. The exceptions to this rule are large events: storms, migrating birds, floods, earthquakes, and eruptions. But for the most part, mother earth is a quiet gentle place. Someone once wrote to me that it was the silence between the sounds that was the most healing, which is an interesting thought, because we tend to automatically focus on the events we hear, and that reflex causes us skip over giving our attention to the silences.

My most quiet memory goes back to when I was outside walking in a wooded valley. It was winter. Snow was falling. Nighttime. No breezes just calm. Big fluffy flakes were floating down and covering everything. There was no sound. I stopped and listened... Except for falling snow and me, nothing moved. It was so quiet I could hear my heart beating. I could hear the blood circulating in my ears! I started to walk slowly, almost daintily, so as not to change the feeling, the environment. The Silence in the Woods. It was a wonderful night just like reading a Robert Frost poem. It really is something you cannot capture or record, bottle, or box and sell, because if you had a completely silent room lined with several inches of fluffy white stuff - then you would almost have it.

However complete silence is not automatically the most relaxing situation. Finding complete silence is so rare, that it seems to be more of a “special event”. That is, it becomes something to experience, explore and note. I guess having more elements of familiarity is a requirement of deeper relaxation. The more peaceful sounds have some tangible sound or sounds for the mind to focus on. Silence does play a role, by creating spaces between the sounds, and thus creating a very slow tempo. One sound comes to mind that is created by a large lake on a very calm day. A large body of water always has a slight undulation to its surface, even on a perfectly calm day. That slow undulation creates a swishing and sizzle as it caresses a sandy beach. Add some heat, and sunshine… and that is the scene where I recorded Whispering Waves. A free sample and more information is here.

Another relaxing sound is bird songs. There are many different birdcalls ranging from single chirps and peeps to never-ending long soliloquies. I am thinking of the type of call that has a pure musical quality that engages, and then is separated by rhythmic periods of silence. I went deep in the northern woods far away from human habitation to record such a sound. The sound is a beautiful musical trill that is repeated about ten seconds apart. It is part of a recording called Boreal Forest Birds. More information and a free audio sample is here.

Having regular periods of silence creates tempos. And slow tempos have been shown in experiments to create physical relaxation responses. The heart beats slower and breathing and respiration slows. The beauty of nature sounds is that there is variability in nature that creates Rhythmic Randomness. It is this quality that potentially creates deeper relaxation, and it is why nature sounds are especially effective. For more information about rhythmic randomness, please see Friday October 16, 2009 in this blog.

Karl Hamilton BFA
Nature Sounds.ca
www.naturesounds.ca
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Winter Nature Sounds Recordings

Winter does have its challenges when recording, however the audio conditions that are present in winter are unique. When fresh powder covers everything, the effective sound absorbent of soft snow creates a wonderful intimate audio environment. The audio quality that one can achieve in this environment is worth the extra work and precautions required when working in the cold and snow.

A woodsman once commented to me in autumn that he guessed that my recording activities would stop now. “No more sounds now until spring” were his words. I mentioned that there are always sounds to record. Breezes continue to blow, water continues to run. And although winter time sees reduced overall animal activity, it provides excellent unparalled opportunity to record certain animals, many weather and water sounds. When he heard that, he smiled. We were both thinking of the same things. The winter sounds of silence.

Winter here is ideal for recording wind sounds. When there is snow cover, the lack of rustling and blowing leaves yields a clean sound of wind through sparce bare deciduous branches which is contrasted with the sounds of denser evergreen boughs with little birdsong to distract. The sound of wind through a stand of pine is really unique and enchanting. Early one winter before the deep snows fell, I recorded breezes through a stand. The thick deep lush covering of mosses on the forest floor substitute for powder snow in this recording: Link to Wind in Pines Sounds.

The audio environment after a deep snowfall if there is little wind is incomparable to any other. Deep snow sits on every branch. Sounds are clear, but travel far. There is a feeling of everything being immediate and close. These conditions are excellent for recording winter birds. As winter progresses birds tend to flock in small groups in the search for new food sources. In some winters they will flock into areas they do not usually visit, thus new recording opportunities can arise unexpectedly in the middle of winter. Link to the Sounds of Boreal Winter Birds.

And then there are some sounds that are only heard in winter. The sounds of ice and the sounds of freezing rain are two that come to mind. Also, wolves seem to howl more in the winter. I suppose we hear them more because they are moving over a larger territory for food in the winter. In winter, it is the periods of silence between the sounds of activity that are peaceful, healing, and meditative. Link to the sounds of Late Winter Wilderness at dawn.

Karl Hamilton BFA
Nature Sounds.ca
www.naturesounds.ca
Nature Sounds Downloads
Nature Sounds CDs
Nature Sounds Videos