I have written before about the lovely Dorrie – who I’ve known since I was 11, and who is my oldest friend.

You may remember my writing about her Spirit Paintings exhibition 2 years ago. For some years now I have maintained Dorrie’s website and until a few months ago, Dorrie was not online very much. However, relocating to a new area inspired Dorrie to get a computer and start searching the Internet for good people to meet, and good projects to get involved in. In no time at all she was all over Facebook and Skype, and we are now much more in touch than we have been in years. I am touched to learn that she now reads my blog, and am super-delighted that she is especially interested in all the SOUNDS that I post here!

We bonded together as outsiders in a hideous secondary school that we both hated. We spent countless hours walking in Lloyd Park. We both ran away from Croydon to live and stay in Tipi Valley when we were 16. We hitch-hiked to Ireland when we were 16 and busked our way around Cork with my flute and no money. We dyed and dreadlocked each others’ hair. She had children. I went to University. And at many points in between we touched base together in Glastonbury or Dublin to talk about our hopes and our dreams. And at some point in all this we became women.

Bear Drum, by Dorrie Joy

Therefore since she asked me for it and since I love any opportunity to share more amazing things with my oldest friend, here are my picks from amongst the Internet’s greatest sonic offerings, presented as a tailor-made listening list for a Dorrie. x

Mountain Parade – This Oxford based folk/pop band reminds me of our girlhood.

The BBC’s History of the World in 100 objects podcast about an Olduvai Stone Chopping Tool is my favourite one in the series so far, but I also love the Olduvai Handaxe and all the references to flint-knapping and ancient tools. I especially like these because they have changed how I think and feel about stones… butthe whole series is amazing.

This TATE podcast about the sound of materials is also fantastic. I love the idea of the sonic life of substances, of the way that things sound.

Chris Watson’s A Journey South podcast from Touch Radio is an amazing journey to Antarctica and features beautiful recordings of Whales and Seals and the particular silence of snow. This is one of several recordings I have mentioned here because it relates to the Earth and its many places and soundscapes.

Other Earth-related recordings I think should be on this playlist include all of the following recordings of Seismic waves and movements from within the mantle of this planet.

John Bullitt is an artist who produced a sound installation based on seismic signals. Here is a description of the sounds:

…recordings of vibrations at the Earth’s surface, obtained from recording stations of the IRIS/IDA Global Seismographic Network.1 To make the original seismic signals audible, the recordings have been speeded up several hundred-fold: the sounds the visitor hears unfolding in about 5 minutes correspond to the vibrations recorded over an entire day of real Earth time.

And here are the sounds from John Bullitt’s installation.

There is also a great explanation of listening to the Earth shaking and quaking over on the US Geological Survey website and some amazing sounds.

One of the things I love about sound is that it can articulate or describe things that would normally be inaudible or invisible. I love this article – for instance – on how to record the echo-location activities of bats and I think you will enjoy the pipistrelle recording in the mammals on the London Sound Survey. I love the whole library of sounds here and the whole wildlife section is beautiful. However the sound actions section puts me in touch with many of the places of our youth and the soundscapes of our teenage years and this is a beautiful thing in another way.

This recording of Wind in Florida is one of my favourites from the Field Sepulchra blog; I can highly recommend listening to that regularly, because Michael Raphael records things beautifully and always writes well about what he has recorded. I like the simplicity of the format, but the wind recording is inexplicably evocative and soothing.

Earth Ear is an online label that a Dorrie might enjoy; they have an online radio with lots of their releases on it that you can hear.

I hope these links bring much listening joy to you all.
Have a good weekend!