‘Let me tell you about winds….’ We’ve always loved that scene in the sandstorm in The English Patient where he names exotic winds including one which drops Saharan dust on southern England.
The words we have in the UK to describe wind don’t evoke the wonder of it – gusty, squally, brisk, breezy. The Beaufort Scale, itself with a lovely name, classifies wind speed, describing each level by degrees of destruction (for example gale = twigs break off trees; generally impedes progress). But these words aren’t enough to describe all that a wind does.
If you observe a wind, you notice much more – how it moves (in ripples or circles or as a wall of air), how it tells us something about the weather that’s on its way, how it brings other sounds with it from far away or obscures other sounds. The sound of the wind is a mix of the movement of air and of physical things being moved (like trees or sand or water or gaps in buildings) so it is shaped by the location and weather. Listening to the wind helps tell us so much about that place, not just at ground-level.
Explore these different soundscapes. Listen to how the wind moves.
Derbyshire gales
Recorded on one of those bright-skied days in April when the clouds are moving faster than they should and you can hear the weight of the trees. This is a wind to blow away the cobwebs.
Listen to episode 46 – Derbyshire gales (51 minutes)
August breezes through an ancient Oak
On a summer’s day under a magnificent tree. This is the sound of the wind picking up 600 year-old branches, summer leaves and long grass.
Listen to episode 26 from underneath an ancient Oak (35 minutes)
Wind over Bridgemarsh Marina
Yacht masts shake in the wind, ringing out across the marina. The wind twists and swirls round the boats and across the water. A storm is coming but not yet.
Listen to episode 36 – Wind over the Bridgemarsh Marina (26 minutes)
Wind on water
A strong wind – enough to blow over our kit. Just the sound of the wind and the water with an occasional bird.
Arable farmland in Essex
At the top of a narrow bridleway, a lonely outcrop of oak trees. Their dry leaves hush and rustle and hiss in response to the changing strength of the wind. A tractor starts mowing the meadow while a buzzard flies overhead.
Listen to episode 20 – Arable farmland in the Essex countryside (37 minutes)
Wind in the tops of the trees
Big gusts of wind in tall trees but no wind lower down. Birds chatter, light rain pitter patters through the trees.
Listen to episode episode 59 – A fallen tree on Galley Hill (31 minutes)
About Lento
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