127 Mirrored ambiences from a summer meadow at Wrabness

Full Episode description

With Wrabness station behind us, the footpath stretched ahead. A warm summer day. Skylarks singing overhead. Sweet scented breezes freshening the clean, optimistic air. 

Soon, a huge expanse of natural uninhabited land was there in front of us, gently sloping down to the estuary water. From here it’s nothing more than a silvery slither seen between tall, long established trees.

We stop  by a fenced meadow with a horse in it.  By a bramble bush with a family of resident tweepy birds. Near a strange house that looks like no other. The sense of sheer openness, was so rejuvenating, we felt we just had to try to capture it.

Once fixed to the fence beside the rambling brambles, we left the microphones to capture the landscape, alone. The house, nearby, is called Julie’s House. “A house for Essex”.  Conceived by the artist Grayson Perry, it’s a building that serves not just to shelter and protect it’s occupants, but to tell a story to those who pass by.

What do the skylarks make of it though? Who knows. But their singing does light it up. Light up the house’s ramped tiles and sound reflective structures, which as the birds wheel over strongly reflect and amplify their songs. What a thing to discover! A house, that’s a sound mirror for skylarks, at the edge of an estuary wilderness.