Sandhill cranes return to the Platte River. Photo by Jeff Rice. All rights reserved.
More than a million sandhill cranes fly through Nebraska every year, many of them stopping at the National Audubon Society’s Rowe Sanctuary in March and April. They settle on the Platte River at sunset making even the most casual observers scramble for their cameras. They also make a lot of noise and I‘ll be sharing some of my recordings from a trip I took to the sanctuary last week.
Researchers are trying to understand why surf scoters are disappearing in the Salish Sea. The latest episode of Salish Sea Wild from the SeaDoc Society follows an expedition to tag and track the birds and I was happy to contribute some of my scoter recordings to the show. The SeaDoc Society’s mini-documentaries are always exceptionally interesting and informative and you don’t have to live near the Salish Sea to appreciate them.
A new video playing at the American Prairie Reserve’s National Discovery Center features many of my recordings from Montana’s grassland habitat.
This incredible piece by Stanford University composer Chris Lortie shows exactly why I like to share my work with artists. You can hear excerpts of my recordings of the Pando forest at the beginning and end of the composition, which explores “the aggregate sensory input on consciousness.”
This is a rare chance to hear Ambisonic compositions in a multi-speaker surround format. I feel very honored to be able to contribute some of my recordings to the DXARTS Fall Concert at the University of Washington.
Meany Hall—Katharyn Alvord Gerlich Theater
FREE
ArtsUW Covid-19 Safety Protocols
The Department of Digital Art and Experimental Media (DXARTS) is pleased to present a program of the very latest holographic sound works from DXARTS composers and associated researchers. Nature recordist and sound designer Jeff Rice’s sound portraits frame an evening of Ambisonic sound, drawing the listener through ecosystems and soundspaces known and unknown.
PROGRAM
Prairie (2021)* - Jeff Rice
Doomsday Machine (2021)* - Juan Pampin
Sheep drive (2021)* - Jeff Rice
Living Water (2020)* - Theresa Ambat
***
Frog pond (2021)* - Jeff Rice
a_voi(ce)_d (2021)* - Wei Yang
Return to the cave (2021)* - Jeff Rice
Vanishing Portals (2019/21) - Daniel Peterson
*World premiere
Once every 17 years, so why not?
Between 10 and 20 million Mexican free-tailed bats emerge from Bracken Cave in Texas every day during the spring and summer. It is the largest gathering of mammals of any kind in the world. Here is the sound of huge clouds of bats returning to the cave after a long night of foraging for insects. As they dive, they make a buzzing/whooshing sound with their wings. Bat Conservation International allowed me to visit the site last weekend to make recordings. I can't say enough about the good work they do to protect bats around the world. Thank you BCI! The recording was made with the collaboration and support of the Acoustic Atlas at Montana State University.
I was thrilled to contribute some of my field recordings to this year’s presentation of the Ken Burns American Heritage Prize. The award is sponsored by the American Prairie Reserve and “recognizes distinguished and visionary artists, authors, educators, filmmakers, historians, and scientists whose body of work has advanced our collective understanding of the indomitable American spirit.” This year’s award went to jazz and classical trumpet legend Wynton Marsalis. Some of my soundscapes of birds, prairie dogs and bison could be heard in parts of the videotaped ceremony.
Here’s a new podcast to add to your list. “The Wind From Eden: Montana Weather Stories” is sponsored by the Montana State University Library’s Ivan Doig Archive and includes a series of stories I produced about the influence of weather on Montana’s ranching culture. One of the stories includes this interview with White Sulphur Springs resident William Glasser. I was sad to hear that Glasser died of COVID-19 last October at the age of 90. Hearing his voice is another reminder of how much we have lost.
Montana resident William Glasser describes being snowed in during the winter of 1948. He had volunteered to help a rancher feed his cows and ended up stranded in a small, dirt-floor shack for more than a month. Glasser died of COVID-19 last October at the age of 90. The interview was recorded and mixed by Jeff Rice for a podcast called Montana Weather Stories.
Eastern Montana includes some of the world’s largest remaining stretches of intact native grasslands. Where they exist, such prairies are rich in wildlife, but less than 5% of temperate grasslands are considered protected, making them among the most endangered ecosystems in the world. In 2017, nature sound recordist Kevin Colver and I began documenting the sounds of Montana's shortgrass prairies through a collaboration with the American Prairie Reserve. You can find many of these recordings in a new collection on the Acoustic Atlas.