The Sound of the Bay

June travelled to a remote bay to record seabirds for a sound project. She arrived before sunrise, set up her equipment and waited. Every few minutes, a low engine noise interrupted the calls.

At first, she blamed tourists. Later, she saw a small boat carrying supplies to the village across the water. Its operator, Mo, had been making the journey for years.

"You could remove the engine sound afterwards," he suggested when she explained the problem.

June knew that she could. Her audience expected a peaceful coast, and the software could make the bay sound more distant from human life than it really was. But she began wondering whose idea of the place the recording would preserve.

The next morning, she recorded both the birds and the boat. She also asked Mo to describe his route. He explained which tides made the crossing difficult and how the birds reacted when the boat approached.

In the finished project, June included a short section of birdsong alone, followed by the wider recording and Mo's voice. She labelled the edited section clearly.

Some listeners preferred the clean birdsong. Others were drawn to the working bay. June no longer saw those reactions as a problem to remove. They revealed how differently people could listen to the same stretch of water.