Radio Lento

175 Night train sleeper (sleep safe)
^{01:00:59 | Episode: 179 | July 8th, 2023}

174 Where cool woodland meets the summer sea (an afternoon snooze)
^{38:43 | Episode: 178 | July 1st, 2023}

At the far end of the long sandy beach at Tenby there’s an area of cool, shady woodland. From the distance and under hot summer sunshine, it looks idyllic. Inviting. A shady promontory on the horizon that curves and blurs down into the sea. 

173 Deep forest time (long & sleep safe)
^{01:19:14 | Episode: 177 | June 24th, 2023}

This is a blend of intimate wide spatial quiet, captured as it happened from beside an old oak tree, in a remote spot in the Forest of Dean. The time is 3:30am and the microphones are recording alone. It’s 90 minutes to dawn.

172 Heatwave thunderstorm that washes and cools (panoramic, made for headphones)
^{27:26 | Episode: 176 | June 17th, 2023}

Have the back streets faded to silent?

171 Sunrise birds in sea washed air
^{32:47 | Episode: 175 | June 10th, 2023}

Sunrise over Tenby. Blue sky. Scudding clouds. 5am, and nobody about, except for the birds in the murmuring air of a seaside town.

170 Night murmuring in Tenby (sleep safe)
^{01:00:00 | Episode: 174 | June 3rd, 2023}

Tenby. A seaside town on the South coast of Wales. End of May into early June. Late sunsets, followed by warm, springtime nights. It’s 1am and the mics are recording alone. Capturing the atmosphere of Tenby, in the dead of night.   

169 Ear witness report from the Hoo Peninsula May 2023
^{47:08 | Episode: 173 | May 27th, 2023}

The Hoo Peninsula is a vast open landscape on the Thames Estuary. Huge uninhabited swathes of ground. The mics (recording alone) were lodged in a hawthorn tree on Higham Marshes nature reserve and pointed out over a watery marsh. Close to the mics lapwings, redshank and cetti’s warblers call, as well as geese and ducks that are familiar sounds to us urban dwellers. Skylarks circle above the farmland straight ahead on the other side of the marsh. Several pastures, with sheep and lambs in one, grazing cattle in the other. During the quieter periods when planes aren’t going over, cattle can clearly be heard tearing up the long grass. 

168 At the mouth of a sea cave (Lento’s best with headphones)
^{35:00 | Episode: 172 | May 20th, 2023}

On Portland Bill. Dorset. We climb down jagged rocks. Naturally formed steps, waist deep, towards the water. Evenly uneven. Like narrow walkways. Some puddles along. Sea spray or resting rain? Now crouched down, she’s peering silently into one of the puddles. Look, she says, tiny creatures. They’re just speckles, swimming.