Sounds of August

Here in the Borders it is almost impossible to go out during the month of August without being aware, through sight, sound or smell, of the harvest taking place. Wheat fields with plumes of dust rising from the harvesters on a hot, dry day. The iconic sound of the combine as it emerges over the horizon, getting louder and louder ….. and yet LOUDER– no wonder that even the smaller models have been named to match!

I couldn’t let the month go by without recording some of the evocative grain gathering sounds in our own locality of Girrick. Not only the harvesting itself, but also the (perhaps less familiar) elaborate drying process of the grain that follows in very quick succession.

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The sounds captured in the “grain processing soundscape” that follows have a wonderful breadth and diversity. Ranging from the reverberation of the trailer gate closing in the grain barn, through the soft sound of the grain filling the dryer chambers, to the dynamic start-up of the burner and fan, and onto the rattling of the cork-screw auger, transferring the dry grain into the store.

Listen and enjoy the textures of the sounds and imagine the aroma of freshly harvested wheat! But be prepared for a few sonic surprises.