Holkham beach is one of my favourite beaches. There is something lovely about walking through the pine trees and then the beach opening up in front of you, flanked by sand dunes and encircled with pines. Once you can see the sea it’s still a 15 minute walk to the waters edge. The nearer you get to the sea the more you appreciate how wide the beach (bay?) is, there something beautifully desolate about it.

Field recording here was good, i arrived around 9am, at that time i probably saw about 10-20 people in total in and around the beach, which given the size of the beach is hardly any, another reason i like the beach. there were a couple of interruptions with dog walkers, and if you listen carefully you can hear an elderly couple having a conversation in the first few shots from the bank overlooking the beach (i let them off, they were there first :)).

The trees that encircle that bay were alive with bird noises which was great, and there were regular fly pasts from what i assume from the honking sound were some type of geese, along with the obligatory wave noises there should be some interesting sounds for me to manipulate into music for this place.

Towards the end i got stopped by a group of dog walkers, one woman assumed I was a bird watcher (a lot visit this area) and seemed bemused when i told her i wasn’t one and was just recording sounds.

The next video will be the last of this year, i need to edit together the footage i shot in Wells Next-the-sea, the next location east along the coast from Holkham. After that it’ll be a wait until spring, when the weather and light is better, before i get the chance to record at any more locations. My plan is to spend the intervening months focusing on creating pieces of music for each of the locations i’ve visited so far.

Holkham Beach field recording