It’s amazing what you hear when you really listen. That’s what the latest edition of Ryecast  is all about, with a special podcast featuring recordings made around Rye. Mostly just the wildlife. A twenty minute montage of birds, bees, sheep, wind, rain, and a few dogs too.

The soundcape is part of the SongMaps Rye project which has seen local people collaborate with artists to tell the story of climate change. There’s art, poetry, music, and in this podcast – sound. I made the recordings on a walk from home on Udimore Road to the Rye Harbour Nature Reserve a few days ago. You’ll hear the birds in my back garden, more birds at Cadborough Cliff and by the railway line, the sound of a heavy downpour on Mermaid Street, the sheep in the fields next to the harbour road, and then more wildlife in the reserve itself.

For the techies it was recorded on a Zoom HN4 Pro in stereo, so you’ll hear bees and insects buzzing from left to right and the trains darting in and out of range. Plus the train horns. Lots of train horns.

So headphones on. It’s twenty minutes to relax and surround yourself with what Rye sounds like with no people…apart from the man with the chainsaw chopping branches on the 1066 Walk...

You can hear Ryecast wherever you get your podcasts or visit www.ryecast.org.

Ryecast is presented and recorded by Rye resident James Stewart ryecastsussex@gmail.com