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Radio Lento podcast: Daily Summaries Delivered
by Hugh Huddy
Surround yourself with somewhere else. Captured quiet from natural places. Put the ”outside on” with headphones. Find us on Bluesky @RadioLento. Support the podcast on Ko-fi.
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- 2 weeks ago50 min
299 Owls of Big Wood (sleep safe with owls)
Night woodland. Sonorous owls. Soft nocturnal breezes catching high in the broad-leafed trees. A panoramic woodland in spatial sound, collected by the Lento box alone. Always so fascinating to us is how the natural world sounds at night, when there's absolutely nobody about. It's quite difficult to record though in its true resting state because human made noise is audible even from distances of ten miles or more. But here on a calm May night in Big Wood on the Leicestershire-Rutland border the Lento box found it. A forest at rest. Owls calling across wide reverberant spaces. Undulating wind moving high in the trees. And so many aural shadows. Velvet brown, shapeless, and yet there. Listening to this collected soundscape in spatial audio makes us think, how owls don't sound like they look. Their aural presence is not stark or silvery at all. Their calls are sonorous and have a timbre more like short wooden flutes, blown and tongued with such precision. They sound more golden than silver. The kind of golden green light you sometimes see when a shaft of moonlight filters down through broad leafed trees. * The Lento box collected this soundscape in May tied to a tree in Big Wood on the Leicestershire- Rutland border. This location is remote (as far as we can get in the UK) and the sound landscape is predominantly natural, though some distant echoes of human made noise are sometimes heard filtering through the forest. We're sharing this segment as *sleep safe* but some people may not feel it is because of the owl calls. This segment begins about an hour after sunset. Sheep and lambs are audible, and some periods of distant squeaking probably from small mammals living in a nearby tree or in a nest at the foot of the tree. ** The image for this episode is taken from the information board at the entrance to the wood. The wood is managed by the Leicestershire and Rutland Wildlife Trust. The board describes special plants and insects found there, with lovely illustrations.
- Jun 20, 20261h 32m
298 Thunderstorm over sonorous rural woodland (warning - sudden shock thunderclaps)
Last month on the evening of 26 May a huge lightning storm centred over a remote wooded area on the Leicestershire-Rutland border where we had left the Lento box alone to record. From where we were staying about three quarters of a mile away we could see fork lightning. We were worried that our equipment might not survive. In our last episode (297) we shared the hour before the tumult began. Now in episode 298, we’re sharing a 92 minute segment of what it sounded like to be within the uninhabited forest as the storm passed directly overhead*. When we were in the woodland looking for a good spot for the mics, the sky was pure blue and the sun was shining down brightly. Soft breezes flowed between the trees carrying scents of cow parsley and sweet smelling vegetation. A perfect early summer's day. As we tied the Lento box to the trunk of an ash tree we had no hint of the weather to come. Torrential rain. Constant rolling thunder. Many overhead lightning strikes. A deluged forest streaming with water but whose resident wildlife rapidly springs back into song. If you like the thrill of sudden shock thunderclaps this is probably the episode for you but as a general note to all listeners please be aware there are some extremely loud and sudden thunderclaps as well as various other sound quality glitches. This is definitely NOT sleep safe. Please treat this episode as being a sound witness to extreme weather conditions in a remote rural woodland. It's also an opportunity to hear how wildlife sounds change during and after storm conditions. * This episode contains some shock thunderclaps (most intense at 50m 22s). The soundscape integrity is temporarily degraded when the mics overload. There is also a physical problem with the box itself, a 30 minute long period where the torrential rain gathers high up in the tree and begins to stream down the trunk some of which drips on top of the box itself. The dripping does eventually ease off and the forest returns with all its deluged wateriness back to rich sonorous song. ** For obvious reasons we don't have a photo of the storm in the forest. The image is from the same storm as it headed towards the area where the box was recording.
- Jun 2, 20261h 1m
297 Sonorous rural woodland before an approaching storm
Last week we took the Lento box to capture the natural soundscapes of rural Leicestershire and Rutland. Our visit coincided with the warmest May temperatures on record and as it turned out the most powerful thunderstorms we'd ever experienced. On the evening of 26 May huge storm clouds swept into the valley, centering exactly over a remote wooded area where we'd left the Lento box tied to a tree to capture the natural soundscape. An hour later the storm was still directly overhead with ear-splitting thunderclaps and fork lightning. We crossed our fingers that the mics would be alright. We collected the box the next morning. The mics survived but the box was drenched. In this episode we're sharing the hour leading up to those lightning strikes. Listening is a rare opportunity to experience the sound-feel of being within an empty rural woodland as the trees and wildlife prepare to ride out the on-coming tumult. Gain full aural immersion of this woodland soundscape with headphones or ear pods. The clarity and spatial reverberances of the spring birdsong. The 360 degree humming created by millions of tiny bees and other insects engaged in their daily foraging. Hear how a small deer picks its way over the leaf litter and pauses right beneath the tree holding the mics. Was it curious about the Lento box? Its footfalls seem to suggest it was. Pheasants can also be heard wandering the forest floor nearby, and mewing to each other in ways we haven't heard before. Baa’ings of sheep and lambs from the surrounding fields echo in the spaces between the trees. As this passage of time progresses towards the 50 minute mark the sky above the woodland has gone from a bright spring blue to the densest of heavy clouded grey. The landscape has dimmed into a premature dusk, punctuated only by intense electrical flashes. It can feel so dangerous to us even from within sturdy buildings, and yet thunderstorms and the way the wildlife respond to them with only leaves and branches for protection are all just part and parcel of life on Earth. * In the last few minutes of this 62 minute passage of time some owls can be heard hooting shortly after the first major roll of thunder cracks open the rapidly darkening sky. ** This is Launde Park Wood Nature Reserve, an ancient woodland of 57 Hectares, managed by Leicester and Rutland Wildlife Trust. *** Episode 298 shares the next hour. Be prepared, it's one of the most tumultuous hours we've ever recorded!
- May 11, 202644 min
296 Looking out on Portland Harbour part 2
Here beneath the tree again, at the water's edge. Looking out on Portland Harbour. Left of scene the sunlit parapets of Nothe Fort. Ahead the flat sun-drenched sea, with lazy waves rolling in over half exposed rocks. Right of scene are some small boats, tugging against their moorings. Rising and falling on light swell. The sparrows seem to like it here. The lazy waves. The peace gathered in around the tree. The distant hum of boats. Traversing the horizon. Lit sharp in the morning sun. A pair of wood pigeons fly in. Join the sparrows. Perch high on a top branch. Spread their wings in the soft sea breeze, as if to fly. But no. They’re just stretching their wings, to catch the warmth of the sun. * This passage of time is a follow-on from episode 251. It's part of a twelve hour overnight recording we made in 2023 on a visit to Weymouth. This spot on the rocks underneath the lone tree by the water immediately to the right of the fort, facing out to the sea, is one of the most sheltered and naturally peaceful places we found along this part of the coast. The waves move in a very particular way as they roll in over the rocks. And due to the woodland behind the fort there's rich birdsong too. ** Read the story of how we found this location and explore all eight of the episodes made here.
- Apr 16, 20261h 1m
295 Low tide on the causeway - part II (sleep safe with occasional herring gulls and oyster catchers)
A soundscene, of an island. Asleep. Between the tides. About this time last year we visited Burgh Island in Devon on the south west coast of England. We made two long-form overnight recordings while we were there. Burgh Island is reached on-foot from Bigbury-on-Sea via a sand causeway. The causeway completely disappears beneath the waves twice a day at high tide making the island accessible only via the magnificent sea tractor. This passage of time is from the recording the Lento box made in Bigbury-on-Sea, tied to a palm tree facing onto the beach and out towards the island. It's the dead of night. 1am to 2am. Weather conditions extremely mild. Wind speeds very light, 1 to 2 knots. Human activity virtually nil for tens of miles, in all directions, including the entire dome of the night sky. The pristine quality of quiet open space in this area enables a crystal clear sound-view of the whole beach and the sea. It's quite a rare thing to witness especially here in the UK. No rumbles in the sky. Not a hint of an aeroplane, anywhere. As if air travel has never been invented. This must be how the world sounded a hundred years ago. The pure uninterrupted high definition sound of a gently shifting sea. Of the tide, so gradually coming in. Of an island, silently asleep, centre of scene. * What makes this sound photograph so precious to us is the crystal clarity of the waves and the movement of the waves as they break upon the flat sands of the beach under a perfectly silent night sky. Herring gulls and oyster catchers are occasionally audible but their calls are relatively sparse and there are long empty gaps. If you are able to hear extremely delicate sound you may also hear some tiny mewing sounds to far left of scene. These are the sheep and lambs nocturnally grazing fields further along the coast. ** You can listen to Part I of this same long-form recording in episode 265 midnight to 1am.
- Mar 21, 20261h 1m
294 Dawn in Shelve Wood Shropshire with cuckoo
The moment we entered Shelve Wood we knew it was a perfect place to record. Shropshire is sparsely populated. There's only one B road in the Shelve Wood area. The country lanes carry little traffic, and on the day we were on-location the skies were very often empty of aircraft. These qualities are highly valuable because they allow the delicate natural sound in the environment to reach your eardrums unaffected. Hearing the leaves of one city tree hushing in the wind is a nice thing to experience, but hearing thousands of trees all murmuring together across a huge reverberant natural space is an aural experience that brings nature connection on a completely different level. Shelve Wood is a forest of diverse flora and fauna with mixed fir and deciduous trees. The ecosystem extends over approximately five hundred acres. The ground beneath the trees is intensely absorbent to sound, layer upon layer of fallen pine needles and leaves that must have lain untrodden by the feet of anything larger than the smallest of woodland creatures for decades. It's the physical properties of the trees, their solid trunks, their branches and complex leaf systems that convert the energy of the wind into hearable sound, and over distance form resonant spaces that catch and amplify the calls of the birds. * We made this recording in May 2025. the Lento box recorded within this location alone and non-stop for twelve hours. This one hour segment captures the dawn chorus just after sunrise. At 20 minutes a blackbird sings high up in the tree holding the microphones. Ear-witnessing this at such closeness is only possible using microphones recording alone. Later in the segment a cuckoo enters the forest to mid-left of scene. Capturing the sound of a cuckoo is something that seems almost miraculous to us, although we have noticed over the six years we've been making recordings to share via Radio Lento that hearing cuckoos is not as unusual as we had previously thought. Nonetheless actually capturing the echoing calls of the cuckoo in a reverberant forest at close range and over a long period of time has never been something we have ever been able to achieve, until now. So we thank this cuckoo for singing so sonorously, and for helping us to mark six years of Lento. ** Thank you for listening and for all your support. Every time we tie the Lento box to a tree and press record we think of you the listener, and how through the Lento mics you can be transported through your ears into these richly detailed natural places. *** It's Lento's 6th birthday next weekend. Celebrate by buying us a birthday coffee?
- Mar 2, 20261h 0m
293 Pools of Rye Harbour (sleep safe)
The Lento box records alone, tied to a tree, behind thickets of gorse. The night hours pass. The microphones capture the panoramic peace of this wild coastal landscape. Rye Harbour Nature Reserve on the East Sussex coast. The tree holding the mics overlooks one of the many small lakes across the reserve. In daytime these bodies of water mirror the sky, and provide different types of wildlife with a calmer place to be compared to the nearby sea. This passage of time is somewhere between 3am and 4am. Nothing is visible in the thick darkness but the soundscape is spatially wide, empty for periods, between waves of delicately detailed nocturnal bird activity. Mid left of scene, about half a mile in the distance, you can easily hear the sea. High tide is several hours away. The lake is dead ahead, and for the first thirty minutes remains silent because there is hardly any wind. To right of scene the inland landscape is mostly quiet, except for a hum that's floating across the fields, from what we guess must be some distant industrial buildings. Being mid-February the peaceful air does not last. A squally weather front moves in at 30 minutes. It brings persistent rain. Rain that sifts down in changing textures. Rain that sparkles as it lands on the still lake water. Unwitnessed moments in time captured perfectly by the microphones.
- Feb 12, 20261h 0m
292 Moorland trees in December gales - Derbyshire (sleep safe after owls at start)
Exposed moorland trees create a strong natural source of undulating white noise when shouldering the brunt of a winter gale. The sounds they produce are uniquely enchanting and an absolute delight to experience. For us it's the beating heart of what it is to be immersed in the great outdoors, and one of the reasons we set Radio Lento up in the first place. To capture and share the aural essences of the great outdoors for anyone (including ourselves) who want to experience but can't always get out to feel time passing in a real natural place. The sound-scene in this recording is entirely produced by trees in wind although at the very start there are a couple of tawny owls. Using headphones you will perceive the scene in its full panoramic width and depth. From far right of scene a line of trees (mixed fir and bare branched deciduous) grow along a ridge that descends into a meadow whose upper boundary aligns with the centre of the scene. From the centre the open meadow then slopes away and down the moor mid-left of scene. Far left of scene another ridge with higher elevation is visible to the ears, more thickly wooded, and despite being much further away generates deep brown turbulences as the wind grows in strength. As time passes the interaction of the ever-changing banks of wind blowing through the arrangements of trees builds and builds, creating a kind of vision of the place all-be-it entirely perceived through spatial hearing. It was well after eleven at night at the very end of December when we headed out to find a place to leave the Lento box to record. The weather conditions were fresh and extremely dry. Not a hint of moisture or damp anywhere. The whole landscape was in the grip of a powerful winter gale. A Derbyshire gale, a thousand feet above sea level. Every twig and every fallen leaf was audible, sifting and shifting in the brisk turbulent air. As we descended below the treelined ridge we felt the depth of the sound being produced by the trees. Not quite a roar, more like a soft low rumble, sensed less through the ears than through the body. We found a tall fence post, and then left the box to record the gale as it blew through the whole night. * We made this recording in High Peak Derbyshire, December 2023 a couple of days before the year turned. This passage of time is from around 5am, just before the cockerel starts crowing in the nearby farm! The weather conditions were incredibly fresh and dry which is why the trees sound so clear and defined.
About Radio Lento podcast
Surround yourself with somewhere else. Captured quiet from natural places. Put the ”outside on” with headphones. Find us on Bluesky @RadioLento. Support the podcast on Ko-fi.
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