Search - Ruth Happel :: Midsummer Nights

Around the time of the summer solstice each year, insects and nighttime birds create a biophony (orchestral sound of living organisms vocalizing together in the same habitat) that is unique to each environment. Ruth Happel, who lives in the eastern United States, recorded half of the album in the Adirondack Mountains of northern New York State. I recorded my segment near Mt. Lassen, not far from the Oregon-Nevada borders. From my field notes: 'I'll never forget the time a major Hollywood film company hired me to go to Iowa to record corn growing. I sat for hours in the middle of a mosquito-ridden field one hot August night waiting for some kind of sound other than the crickets and frogs, when suddenly the stalks all around me burst into life squeeking and popping as they telescoped in length one or two inches while I sat there recording. I crickets and bullfrogs of Lassen reminded me of that bizarre but wonderful evening so very long ago.