Today I am very happy to share with everyone some beautiful soundscapes from the Swedish Forest.

These recordings were originally done in April of 2018 for the film Ghabe which, along with months of dedication to the sound design, ended up awarding us with the European Cinematography Awards of Best Sound.

The album is available on my bandcamp‘s page.

Along the 3 days I have been on location, I have used a pair of Sennheiser mkh8040 with a Zoom F4. A couple of recordings were done with the mkh8020, arranged in a quasi-binaural array. The mics were simply tied to the sides of a tree trunk. You can listen to an evocative example below.

Anyone can purchase the album knowing that 21% of the profit will be donated in equal parts to Survival International, AmazonWatch and Mongabay. These are organizations I truly respect and that work ethically on urgent matters. I hope you enjoy this work!

Swedish Forest Textures began its life with the purpose of illustrating Ghabe – a feature film that portrays a young Syrian refugee in the dark, overwhelming forests of Sweden.

As I was reaching the area by car I saw a large group of swans illuminating the big dark late, like a celestial vision, with the promise of beautiful soundscapes.

The field recordings had the approach of experiencing the forest for a first time. The snow was still melting and it was deep in spots where the sunlight barely touched the ground.
Beautiful lakes – large and small – make the acoustics like a mirror and called a variety of wildlife that we can listen to sometimes at the distance, other times much closer.

All kinds of weather have been pouring into the microphones: heavy rain, strong evolving winds in the strong trees, warm and soothing sunlight and cold quiet nights.

During the difficult hikes, with equipment heavy on my back, I encountered beautiful and almost mystical sights such as the whole skeleton of a young female elk and tracks from large animals in the snow, but my ears detected more than my eyes. This album contains a selection of the awe-inspiring soundscapes and ambiences that I captured during my time here.

Tragically this area was chopped dead less than a year after the recordings took place.

I’m hoping to bring not only a sense of admiration but one of belonging in the nature that we often fear and have become increasingly distant too as urban spaces advance and separate us from the essence of life.

Between tracks there is a very high dynamic range and I encourage you to listen to the quieter tracks at a lower volume, as the night time is in fact very silent.

21% of the profit made from your purchases is going to be donated in equal parts to Survival International, Mongabay and Amazon Watch. Thank you for helping with their cause!