Running Time:

97 min

Release Date:

November 2014

Recording Location:

Bialowieza forest, Poland

Bialowieza I - Stara Twilight

by Geoff Sample

In the far north-east of Poland, extending over the border into Belarus, is the vast Bialowieza Forest, containing some of the largest surviving fragments of the primeval forest of the north European Plain. This album comprises four tracks recorded at dawn and dusk in an area of mixed forest a little to the north-west of Bialowieza village.

Geoff comments:

The first track is over one hour of continuous dawn chorus, one of the richest I’ve ever experienced, under the towering presence of the old Stara oaks. A wide variety of forest birds make up the chorus, which diffuses into the resonant distance of this woodland soundscape. A collared flycatcher, one of the characteristic birds of the forest, can be heard singing for most of the way through the session; its atonal melodies seem to provide a unifying strand threading through the themes of other species. Black woodpecker activity is intermittent throughout, hammering, drumming and calling, and a pair of ravens comes and goes.

Then there are three shorter tracks taken from nearby locations at dusk, where the spacious acoustic of this wonderful place is even more emphatic.

Audio sample of this album

1.

Dawn:
Stara Bialowieza Chorus

64.57

2.

Dusk:
Cooling Off with a Robin that Listens to Flycatchers

16.57

3.

Fading Light

12.19

4.

Unseen - Tengmalm's Owl

3.10

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