From the \"Environmental Sounds \" Series, also released on other formats under the Four Winds Trading Company label published via WIld Sanctuary.
Typical release from from the massive discography of musician and soundscape ecologist Bernie Krause, a pioneering soundscape ecologist who coined the terms geophony, biophony, anthropophony, and the \"Acoustic Niche Hypothesis\" theory. Krause was an early electronic music pioneer who shifted to field recordings in 1979, becoming so focused on the genre he ended up being a leading figure in sound ecology studies.
Very similar to Irv Teibel's thunderstorm recording (can't help but note these two share a birth year), no overdubs or music added. It's interesting how universal rainfall and thunder sounds are. One can see how this is nature's white noise generator, same effect as the infant sound machine we had at home. One of the bittersweet aspects of recordings like this is they capture sounds from a place and time that have since gone, not just in a cosmic sense but sadly a literal one: of the the thousands of field recordings Krause has archived from the natural environment over half don't exist anymore. They are ghosts of wild landscapes since destroyed, urbanized or eclipsed from sound pollution.
In this case Bernie made his recording in Belize, hence the occasional faraway bird songs instead of distant car horns.
Some of the linear notes gleaned from other format releases on discogs:
~ Rolling thunder and bolting lightning signal the arrival of a summer's storm over the city. The rumble of distant thunder challenges the steady, gentle patter of rain in the garden outside as the storm moves over the city to the countryside beyond. A masterful pure environmental sound portrait of one of nature's most dynamic yet comforting aound experiences.
Bernie Krause has been recording the sounds of natural environments since 1968 and has established the largest private library of rare animals and habiatats in the world. He holds a Ph.D. with an internship in bio-acoustics, has recorded soundscapes for 33 albums and natural sound environments for public spaces through his company, Wils Sanctuary Natural Sounds, located in San Francisco. ~
\"Recorded in Belize during a gentle passing of cumulus weather cells some distance away. Never loud or intrusive, the event lasted a little more than an hour, the rain and mild rumbling nearly lulled me to sleep it was so calming and reassuring. It was clearly Nature's way of showing a mild face.\"
