Dawn by the river in the African bush 

The relaxing sounds of a river babbling gently as the savanna wakes up around it.
What is the sound of a river in the African savanna? Is it the sound of flowing water? Or maybe the sound of the animals and birds that inhabits the its banks? Is it the sound of the insects that call the catchment area home?
This is all very personal and relative. In my practice I love recording the sounds of spaces, and rivers are fascinating because they are liminal spaces between dry land and water environments, with all the degrees of separation that the geography allows. Sometimes there will be riverine vegetation, marshy/swampy areas, oxbow lakes, even gallery forests.
These habitats are very productive in their own right, especially in arid environments outside of the rainy season. Wildlife congregates around rivers and waterholes, with plenty of permanent residents and regular visitors. The fact that wildlife from different environments meet here creates very interesting interactions. It's these interactions that prove very exciting for sound recordists as they are usually accompanied by a lot of sound activity.
There's also the aspect of acoustics. Rivers sometimes have steep banks that reflect sound in very pleasant ways. Clumps and patches of riverine forest do that as well. The more of these elements, the more complex and pleasant the reflections will be. The surface of the water also reflects sound, although not in the same way and direction as vertical treelines.
Lastly, the sound of the water itself creates a very pleasant and soothing experience when it's not too fast (and maybe even then, but that is a different story). The fact that as humans, we experience the world through liquid for the first 9 months of our lives, before we are born, has to have some sort of subconscious effect that lasts during our lifetimes. Would you agree or is this plain wrong?
Recorded with Sony PCM A10 and Lom mikroUsi in South Luangwa National Park. Enjoying the videos I upload on here? Please consider supporting me by:
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#naturesounds #watersounds #nature