When the lock-down in Rome started around two months ago, I was planning to go for a couple of nights out in the countryside. After a busy summer, and a hectic first semester, I was looking forward to a short break. Nothing clears my mind better than the fresh air, a good walk in the countryside, an evening campfire, and a night under canvas. My new one-man trekking tent had just been delivered, and is still waiting to be used. These plans, of course, have had to go on hold.

Lock-down has obliged me to rediscover and inhabit space in a new way: physical spaces, cyber-space(s), and even interior spaces. I find more than ever the need for interior mental space — whether for relaxation, meditation or prayer — that helps me also find a space of calm.

This need led me to experiment once more with sound. Some time back, I had downloaded Audacity [external link], and had even bought a good microphone (a Zoom H2N), with the idea of creating a podcast linked with this blog. Well, the microphone has now proved very useful in these weeks of online teaching, meetings and the like.

I also decided to experiment with creating (primarily for myself) a set of soundscapes — using sound to recreate a mental space, that can transport me out into the open, in the evening, by the campfire, before heading for my tent. Here’s the two first results.

The first soundscape imagines a place by a lake or sea, hearing the waves against the rock, the crackling sound of a small campfire on an autumn night. In the first couple of minutes, the sound of a bell from a nearby village or town — calling to prayer.

The second imagines an evening campfire — well, you can see a theme here! — somewhere in the woodland close to a stream. In the distance, you can here the sound of nocturnal insects and owls.

They are edited on Audacity, using sounds that I found on Freesound [external link], or recorded myself. Full links and credits to the different sounds I used in the mix are given in the episode descriptions. My editing is still very rudimentary — primarily intended to create a 30 minute loop! — and can be vastly improved, but — hey! — I have to start somewhere. I have opted to upload them to Anchor.fm, a podcasting website (now owned by Spotify), with the hope of eventually also moving onto some proper podcasting.

It was also a conscious decision to work only with sound, rather than providing some slideshow to go with these soundscapes. I want to experiment with the power of sound to feed the imagination. Listening to the same soundscape, each of us can be transported to our own favourite spot, our own calm space. Enjoy!