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The Compass: Living with Nature: The sounds of the Lofoten Islands

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Lofoten Islands, Norway

08/08/2018 GMT

The sounds of the Lofoten Islands

Living with Nature

BBC World Service - The Compass, Living with Nature, The sounds of the Lofoten Islands

Glacial streams, the wind and the cry of ravens are familiar sounds of Lofoten islands

Glacial streams, the wind and the cry of ravens are familiar sounds of the Lofoten islands in Norway.

Wildlife sound recordist Chris Watson accompanies Sami Joiker, Andé Sombe, on a journey up a mountain on the Lofoten islands in Norway to explore the relationship between the sounds of the mountain, the people and the wildlife.
 
As Chris discovers, for many Norwegians the soundscape is part of the fascination and attraction of the mountains. The mountains offer an escape from urban and man-made noise to Nature’s symphony which is composed amongst other things of the sounds of running water produced by the glacial streams, the whisper and roar of the wind, the chorus of song birds and the cry of soaring ravens high overhead.
 
Looking around Chris is reminded that this is an Arctic landscape but in recent years the glacial ice has been melting in some of Norway’s highest mountains and we learn how a team of archaeologists have been recovering thousands of artefacts, some of which date back 6,000 years.
 
But it is also the quality of the sounds here that intrigues Chris, and during the climb gradually he begins to understand something of the deeper more spiritual connection with the earth which is so intrinsic to the Sami culture.
 
For Andé the mountain soundscape and his relationship to the wolves which were once so prevalent here, inspires a joik, a Sami chant, which he performs at the peak of their climb.

(Photo: Mountain lake and crater Lofotens Islands, Norway. Credit: Chris Watson)

The Compass: Living with Nature

A journey in sound to hear the world as you’ve never heard it before.

This is the world as you’ve never heard it before. In this series for The Compass, wildlife sound recordist Chris Watson presents a guide to the sounds of four very different global habitats; the Plains, Desert, Mountain and Forest and explores the relationship between these soundscapes in Kenya, Namibia, Norway and India, the wildlife and the local people.

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