This recording is done in the garden on a nice evening in the spring. I test a new set of microphones, the DPA 4060. They are small, and I place them a little apart in the Rhododendron in front of our house, in order to record the bees feasting.
Bee populations are in decline, but I am not sure if local populations are affected by this. There is frantic activity in the bushes, as previous years. At the same time the surrounding landscape and vegetation is changing rapidly here, as moors are transformed into suburb. At three minutes and onwards in the recording a distant engine can be heard. It’s a digger doing ground work at the new neighborhood Angeltveit Vest, below and behind our neighbor’s houses. The moor is disappearing there as well.
When our neighborhood was first developed fifteen years ago, there were little or no vegetation or bird life, and the place felt void and quiet. Now we are surrounded by sparrows, crows, magpies, doves, ducks and seagulls.
The recording captures many other common sound layers and events of the neighborhood. A car starts, doors shut, and it drives of. While in the driveway we hear the characteristic sound of tires against gravel. Children play in the distance.