Impact

THE BEAUTY OF WILD AMBIENCE

Marc Anderson, natural sound expert and photographer, aka Wild Ambience, won the Most Beautiful Sound in the World Competition. Check out his interview with BeautifulNow founder, Shira White.

Shira: Congratulations on winning the Most Beautiful Sound in the World Competition. you had a beautiful sound, so that's really great.

Marc: Thanks for that. It’s part of what I do for work. I try to make an effort to record beautiful sounds.

S: Tell me a little bit more about what you do for work.

M: I've primarily been a freelance photographer, but my real passion and hobby is nature and travel photography; I love nature, and in the last few years I've started to get into the sound recording side of it, in addition to taking photos of a location -- the wildlife, the nature -- I really got into recording it.

S: In your photography work do you mainly focus on nature?

M: It depends where I am. I always make an effort to find the national parks, the wildlife, the birds, the animals, when I can get into those areas. But when I'm in villages and towns it's more focused on the people and the towns. At home sometimes I take commercial photography for the cash flow, to pay the bills. But nature is where I really enjoy myself, and get a lot of satisfaction -- I find it very peaceful as well.

S: Fabulous. I assume you were the one who took the photo that accompanied your entry, correct?

M: Yes, that was in the same location, a little further up the trail where there was a viewpoint over the national park.

S: Very nice. Tell me, did you record and capture this sound and photo specifically for this competition, or is this something you had created already that you then decided to enter?

M: It was something I already had on record, it was a little over twelve months ago, and it was one of those things where I was in the right location and I could sense there was a lot happening in terms of the rainforest, the sounds that were really pulsing this afternoon. We found this little frog pond where the frogs had started calling, so I set the microphones up, anticipating that it would get even better, which it did! We ended up getting a really nice, one hour recording just as intense as what you can hear in that three minute sample. It was amazing.

S: Wow. Did the sound change over the course of the hour, or was it pretty uniform?

M: Yeah they do, they seem to come in waves. The interesting thing is, when I did some research on the species we had recorded -- for example the cicadas and the insects -- they don't often try to compete with each other at the same frequency. You'll have one species come in early in the dusk and then that will phase out and another one will come in, and that way they aren't interfering with one another's sounds signals. So you do see that over the period of the hour, even with the frogs, that seems to happen.

S: Cool, when you did your research did you find that the animals are only on each other's frequency, kind of like a CB-band or a radio band? Or can they all hear each other and interact with each other, or are they all operating on their own frequencies? How’s that work?

M: That’s a good question. I'm not sure, I haven't seen any research indicating that we know too much about that. I guess they must be able to detect predators and other noises around them. What’s interesting though is that when you’ve got a range of different species, with today’s technology you can actually visualize the sounds, and you can see how it interlocks together and it fits nicely.

There isn't too much overlap in frequencies. So you’ve got the lower frequency sounds, usually frogs or birds, then mid-frequencies which may be other types of frogs and birds, and up high you’ve got the insects. It's amazing and beautiful to see how it comes together in this harmonious pattern, even visually.

S: Wow, that’s really interesting. Does this change seasonally? I would imagine it would, because different animals are more active, is that right?

M: It would. Depending on breeding seasons birds would call primarily at the start of their breeding system and call to attract a mate. Frogs often call after rain, when there’s enough rain for them to start breeding, so I could go back to that same location after it’s really dry in a different time of year and it could be almost silent. I’m not sure, I hope that isn't the case -- I hope it's always like that, but it can very depending on the season and weather conditions.

S: What in your opinion, we’ve been analyzing all the sounds that have come into the competition, and everyone’s been trying to figure out who to vote for, but tell us in your view, why did you think this sound was so special and had a chance to win?

M: I think the thing that really appeals to me about this particular recording is the complexity of it. I've made lots of recordings in many different countries but this one in particular -- when I give people the headphones and ask them if they’d like to listen to it, and they put it on -- you can see their eyes light up and it's like an orchestra, almost like a composed piece of music. It’s so beautiful, yet it’s just all these little creatures who we attribute to having very small brains, but somehow it's all harmonized beautifully.

S: It certainly was. Where can we find more of your work, if we’d like to listen to more of your sounds and check out more of your photographs?

M: With the sounds, my website is wildambience.com. That's where I upload my sounds, and I have downloadable sounds and CD's there. It’s a labor of love -- the amount of energy and time it takes to go out and record these things compared to the money I make on that particular website -- any sales is a bonus, really! That's linked to some of my other sites.

My photography website is marcanderson.com.au and some of your followers might be interested in a new project we just launched at naturesoundmap.com. That’s just not my sounds, but at the moment we’ve got over 50 sound recorders from around the world who have contributed beautiful nature sounds and recordings from all kinds of places. It's on a Google map where you can click on the sounds and listen from the various places, so it's an engaging website you can spend a lot of time on if you enjoy nature sounds!

S: That sounds so cool, we’ll definitely check that out! What's the most beautiful thing in your life right now?

M: Haha, that’s a good question. Well, I've got a lovely wife who is always encouraging me and supporting me to continue doing what I love doing, so she makes it all the pleasure. You could be doing these things and not really enjoying life if you didn’t have that sort of support or friendship. So I’d say I really, really appreciate my wife Rachel.

S: Cool, well I’m sure she’s gonna appreciate hearing that! We also really hope that now that we know you're a photographer, you'll participate in our photo competitions. We have weekly competitions with a new theme every week, largely photography -- we are opening it up to other art forms as well -- so we hope to see you and your work there as well!

M: Yeah, certainly I will keep an eye out for the subjects that are suitable for the kind of work I’ve got, and I really appreciate the opportunity to participate in the sound competition and the feedback I’ve received, so thank you guys for that.

S: Thank you, and enjoy yourself down under.

M: Thanks a lot, Shira.

All images from this interview are courtesy of Marc Anderson.

Check out the Most Beautiful Sound in the World.