TouchRadio 118

"In Spring 2013 I was part of an ornithological survey (bird migration census) in a desert area in the Nile Valley, Egypt. Our team lived, considering local conditions, in a rather modern building in a town called Sandafa Al Far. Apart from the actual work, our standardised observations, I most of the time made sound recordings of birds, amphibians, insects and the general soundscape in the vicinity of our house. Sometimes guarded by two policemen (because of an allegedly unsafe situation after the so-called Arab Spring) but always accompanied by a cluster of curious and noisy children. The combination of an extreme climate, a precarious political situation, witnessing violence, experiencing severe health problems and not least being surrounded by an omnipresent, diverse and sometimes almost too powerful soundscape led to a somewhat surreal memory of my time there." Photo: Marcus Held