Ashley Elsdon: Recordings

Ok, the title of this recording is a little misleading. This is the sound of the tube from Stockwell to St Pancras. The person I was travelling with asked why the tube made this horrible wailing sound, and I replied 'It's the sound of dead commuters screaming'. It was kind of off the cuff, but the sound does make me think of wailing souls.

I had a few moments and took a walk around a small park in London, listening to the sounds of people, dogs etc. As I was walking there was a bunch of children playing football. I think it was organised, at least as much as that gets. But it was a pleasant sound, so pushed record on my watch. I hope you enjoy it, even though it is brief.

This is a recording of just the general ambience from the show.

A brass band at the Sanderstead Horticultural show. This local event has been postponed for a couple of years for obvious reasons, so it was great to see it return.

I was aware that they were there, not far from the automatic door, and every time it opened you got a burst of this really quite lovely singing.

Over the weekend we had some heavy rain and I decided to record it using my Zoom H2n. You can hear that the rain tapers off, but it was a good downpour.

Another recording of watering in the garden

As we have been having a spell of hot weather I have been watering the garden. I thought I would make a little recording of it.

I recorded this using my Apple Watch in the lift at one of the offices that I work in. It makes a lovely grinding sound.

This is another very brief recording from last month. Once again using an Apple Watch to record.

I recorded this last month as I was walking by some road repairs. The only recorder I had to hand was my Apple Watch. So I used that. It's only a very short recording, but I hope you enjoy it.

This was actually recorded a little while ago, in March actually, but I've only just got to uploading it. Also, you might notice that I say that the recording is an hour long. Well the original was, but it was too big to upload so I cut it down to something a bit more manageable. 

Before I tell you about this recording it is worth explaining that I have changed the format of the podcast. Now there's a little introduction (spoken) from me and some intro and exit music too. I will probably experiment with the format over time, but please let me know if you like it, or hate it, or anything in-between.  This is a recording that I have tried to get for about three weeks now. It is of some automated window shutters in Southwark (London). But every time I either miss it, or there is too much other noise for it to be a worthwhile recording. This one is not perfect, but it is the best so far, even though it is quite short. I expect to try again though! I hope you enjoy it.

I recorded this at Winchester Cathedral on the 22nd of January 2022. The natural reverb of the building contributed to the beauty of the singing, but made the introduction a little difficult to hear, and that is certainly apparent on the recording. I hope you enjoy this.

This is short part of a longer recording of a train journey to Winchester over the weekend. Having reviewed the whole recording I thought that just the first couple of minutes was worth posting. The train itself was much more noisy than the local trains I normally find myself on, which is why I thought I would record it.

This is another recording from last weekend at the allotment. I liked the sound that locking and unlocking the gates made, so I recorded it. This is only a short recording, but I find it quite satisfying.

This recording was made over the weekend at the allotment. The site sits between two railway lines, which is why you can hear the sound of trains quite frequently. It was around the middle of the morning on Saturday and very quiet up there, which is normal at this time of year. I like this recording, I hope you will too.

This is a recording of another local train journey. It was around 8pm in the evening and there were very few people on the train so most of what you hear is just the announcements and the sound of the train itself.

I missed a train and had a half hour to kill, so I spent it in a coffee shop I had never been in before.

Yesterday I had to make a few journeys on local trains, so I took the opportunity to make some recordings.