We have just completed our three Friends’ Sound Workshops, experimenting with a variety of commercial and improvised recording devices to capture the natural sounds of the reserve. We first concentrated on grasses and birdsong on the saltmarsh and alongside the stream, then the raucous chorus of nesting terns from Denney Hide. Finally, we listened to the recordings and looked at how they could be edited using the Audacity app.

Course leader, Mary Hooper says:

The workshops for FRHNR were a new challenge of me in terms of my work as a sound artist and I wasn’t sure who would take part or what they would expect. Having Ezra Gray leading the first session was very rewarding and great fun, and thank you Ezra for sharing so much knowledge with us.

In the second and third sessions we experimented with different microphones and shared ideas skills and knowledge and made some plans for future development.

I enjoyed every session and was inspired by all the talent and skill in the group so thank you for inviting me to lead these workshops.

We hope to plan more in the future, building up a community of expertise along with an archive of sounds.