In January 2021 I was asked to contribute a soundscape to BBC Soundscapes for Wellbeing, a collaborative project that aims to connect audiences with nature through creative programming via BBC Radio 3, 6 Music, BBC Sounds and BBC Two’s Winterwatch. The soundscape can be seen in context by scrolling to the foot of this webpage https://bbc.co.uk/soundscapesforwellb… until the end of February 2021.

The piece was constructed using a mixture of field recordings and electronically generated sounds unearthed from within the BBC’s archive of 33,000 recordings.

With thanks to musicians from the Wamba Wamba Nation of Australia (recording of solo metal gong), and worshippers at the Nichiren Shoshu temple in the UK (recording of evening prayers), as well as to children playing outside in Egypt and London.

The piece is influenced by ambient soundtracks of the 1990s, such as Philip Glass’s work on ‘Baraka’, and the KLF’s ‘Chill Out’, where the aim of tuning out is to go further, to reach beyond, take a trip into a sometimes unsettling, unstable universal consciousness, rather than just consuming some kind of relaxation experience.