Soundscape with Rain

I first got my idea for my soundscape from these big shrubs outside the wellness center that I always pass by on my way back from my afternoon classes around 4:25pm. I have a class ending around then every day of the week, and every time I walk past the shrubs I can hear birds furiously making conversation inside them. One day I decided to record them, and make some sort of soundscape about what birds are arguing about when they gather in bushes and chirp really loudly. And of course, the one day I stop next to the shrubs to record them, they all immediately shut up. 

While this foiled my initial plans, when I listened back to the recording I noticed so many other sounds that got captured that were arguably just as interesting, like a person singing along to music in their headphones as they walked past. I'm putting the link to the soundscape below, with the hope that you'll listen to it before you get to the rest of my post. There are some sounds I used to create the illusion of other sounds, and I want to see if you pick up on them. To help break it up more, I also added a video and a couple photos that I think capture the feeling of my soundscape. I recorded the video in the Palacio de Cristal in Madrid, and the photo is from a rain storm at the Great Mosque of Cordoba. 

 Here is my soundscape. Listen to this first!!!!

And perhaps, while you listen, consider:

"They suspect the ear; they don't trust it. In general we feel more secure when things are visible, when we can 'see for ourselves.' We admonish children, for instance, to 'believe only half of what they see, and nothing of what they hear.'" 

- McLuhan 117 

Great Mosque of Cordoba

Now, the soundscape! I pulled the rain sounds from online, as well as the choral sections. But the "thunder" that went with the rain was actually just wind that I captured when I tried to capture the bird sounds. At first I was super annoyed by how blown out it was, but when I put the rain on top, it stopped sounding annoying and started adding to the atmosphere. So I played into the sound of it as gentle, rolling thunder in the beginning, then brought it back at the end with the choral music. Something about being overlayed with the electronic reverbation of the choral music almost made the "thunder" feel like a harmony, which transforms it again from wind to thunder to vocals. I really love how it becomes many sounds at once, and I had a similar logic with using the little run from the person who was singing while walking past in multiple different ways throughout the soundscape. 

Also, I think it's 2 minutes instead of 1 minute. Oops. Enjoy!