NEWS

Latest News Updates

March 2025

- 'Roso Ese-kke' is from the Great Andamanese language which translates as 'Sounds of Change' with the central word 'Ese' also meaning 'gift from God,' gift of love and painted in Nigerian languages. Roso Ese-kke is a short Sound Art Project taking place in a part of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands known for its colonial history and struggle for identity and where the Indigenous Andamanese remain voiceless, we believe that Andamanese tribes should be protected and given the freedom to live their lives without interference from the outside world. The art will be a series of field recordings planned for August 2025 to capture the shifting and changing environmental landscapes and urban city soundscapes using sound from recordings to convey the ever changing life towards modernity and the deeper natural world that is being left behind letting the land and its surroundings tell its own story.

- Ambientscape have appeared on the NTS show by the wonderful Nkisi broadcast on Wednesday 12th March 2025.

- Article published in the 'For the Record' magazine no.93 Spring 2025.

February 2025

- The Ambientscape WebSDR has been recently upgraded to accommodate more users and we are currently observing African currently observing nanosatellites in the field of sound and radio astronomy as well as other climate satellites. The current set up has been effective in receiving ISS transmissions and decoding formats such as SSTV by HAM radio operators consistently have attached example screenshots here and here from received radio audio signals, a further layer to the art and science of sound and field recordings using radio signals.

- We are also now a part of the Satnogs network of Earth and ground stations and shall be scheduling the monitoring of environmental satellites and contributing to meteorological data phenomena to understand what is happening on our planet.

- The article 'My First Experience of Bat Recordings 'Transmogrifying the Passage of Time: A Minimalist Approach to Bat Recording' by Jonathan Emeruwa for the Wildlife Sound Journal of the Wildlife Sound Recording Society is available online to read on page 31.

December 2024

- The Harrow based Ambientscape WebSDR, (an internet radio wave receiver) is online using devices from a mobile 'Receive Only Earth Station,' it will be linked to appropriate antennas, tested and fine tuned over the next few months in 2025, this will include using an antenna rotator and dual-yagis to accurately track and receive space satellite signals. The WebSDR will provide listeners a simpler way of scanning VHF, HF and UHF frequencies to hear Ham operators, aviation pilots and listening to radio transmissions from astronauts on the ISS International Space Station with the option to record live radio streams, we shall also focus on receiving signals from African satellites for educational purposes which will be the first online project of its kind more information about the new WebSDR can be found here.

- Will be doing more cylinder and disc transfers next year not just to digital but also recording back onto physical formats with blank or reused shaved wax cylinders, reprocessed old plastics and by using sustainable bio-based polycarbonate materials, combining historical techniques with current innovations.

- A new ethnomusicology and mental health research paper will be announced next year.

- Earlier in July 2023 we made an announcement to test a machine learning model which could potentially be helpful in restoring endangered languages from what had been presented the results were not satisfactory enough to proceed having identified key problems, going forward we will be working on the machine learning code ourselves, so the work resumes.

- The research into George W Broome is still ongoing but have found extra information this year to add to the timeline as we continue to try and piece together his story.

October 2024

- The British Library Sound Archive research article has been published and available on the British Library Sound and Vision Blog entitled, Carry me Home - Reattaching to the self: Melodic arrangement in African American Spirituals and early 20th Century classical compositions.

- Announcement of a release coming up soon that will involve radio but a very different type of project to what you might expect.

- Will also be looking into developing ideas for efficiency and environmental sustainability around older sound recording formats particularly focusing on renewability in sound preservation and seeing how well current innovations can support this process,

June 2024

- 'Just to thank Dr Inja Stanovic and the University of Surrey for the opportunity to speak at the conference and a shout out to the incredible guest presenters you can check out the full conference here, I've included edited presentation slides which also gives an overview of the nature of the Ambientscape Project. The programme of the event is also viewable.' - Jonathan Emeruwa.

April 2024

- Jonathan will be giving a talk at the University of Surrey on June 13th 2024, the conference is on 'Exploring Traditional Music on Wax Cylinders, Technologies and Performance Styles.' where he'll be discussing the Ambientscape Project and having an open Q&A session.

- There has been an update on the Cylinder Archive of significant commercial British Wax Cylinder recordings from Electric Records representing an important part of British sound recording heritage almost all these recordings have not been available in any other library/archive.

March 2024

- We have worked very hard to build a substantial collection of historical field recordings mainly in the area of ethnomusicology for the 'World Field Recordings' Youtube channel this has been implemented in a fairly short space of time allowing easy accessibility for the public to preview recordings that may be hard to find.

January 2024-December 2023

- We have relaunched the Youtube Channel which will now be focused on historical field recordings, an area very much lacking, we will be having a big update during the first week of January.

- Our bursary award with CLPGS has been included in the ARSC 58th Annual conference newsletter on page 10.

December 2023

- The channel has ceased for now so just to thank all the supporters, subscribers, donators and labels who have supported the Ambientscape Channel this year.

- We have also tightened up some of our preview only content.

- In light of the saddening news of cyber attacks on the British Library just a reminder that we have some content available for educational preview purposes, we really hope they are able to get back online soon.

October 2023

- Very thankful to Jonathan Summers and British Library Sound Archive having started the first day of research for the

Edison Fellowship.

September 2023

- The Ambientscape Project has been added to the ARSC member's directory, we are very pleased to continue to be a member of the Association for Recorded Sound Collections and do encourage you to check out their presentations and website.

- We also have a new digital repository and search database designed by developers, 'Talarian,' which will be updated on a frequent basis and can be found in the Search Link on the website.

August 2023

- We have been awarded a second CLPGS bursary for the year 2023 and would like to thank all the members for their continued help and support throughout the process.

- There have been recent ongoing updates to all content in the World's Music, section, and a lot of new posts added to our Youtube Page to show our appreciation to supporters and subscribers this past year.

- We shall be closely collaborating with our site's contributor Dominic Combe to also help to digitise his wax cylinder collections as part of the Ambientscape Project. It cannot be emphasised enough just how important his recordings are, very much an integral part of the history of recorded sound and definitely deserves to be preserved. Notable recordings from Dominic's collections include the first Pete Hampton cylinders which were included on the Black Europe: Bear Family Records, Compilation.

July 2023

- Over the coming year we will be testing out a machine learning model in its very early stages to see if this could potentially be useful in helping to restore speech /sound and endangered languages using A.I. more details will follow in 2024.

March 2023

- Have been awarded the 'Edison Visiting Fellowship' with the British Library, designed to encourage scholarship for the history of recordings, classical music, and music in performance, through the British Library Sound Archive. A big thank you to the British Library Classical Music department and curator Jonathan Summers. Rest assured the topic of research will certainly be of interest, revealed later on in the year, also intending to contribute towards the ' British Library sound and vision blog' during the course of the scholarship.

- Several collections have been added to the website including a page on Northcote W. Thomas and his immense collection of African wax cylinder recordings from Nigeria and Sierra Leone shared with the permission of Curator Paul Basu please visit his [Re:]Entanglements website for more information. Also check out the Angakut reinterpretative musical score entitled, 'Number 139: A Song for Northcote W. Thomas.'

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February 2023

- We have added online information sourced from biblio.co.uk and Peter Harrington Booksellers London on the unacknowledged black entrepreneur George W. Broome, the first African American to start a record label, as far as we understand there have been no specific studies done on his life and this has prompted us to pursue further research entitled; 'Broome Special Phonograph Records: A Look into the Life of George W. Broome and the Origins of the Black Record Company.' We are currently searching for contacts, family and friends that know of George W. Broome to help us bring more awareness to his important legacy.

January 2023

- Added the 'Andaman Islands Indian Collection' to the website featuring field recordings from the Andaman tribes for audio preservation and kindly donated by the researcher and author of the book 'Dictionary of the Great Andamanese Language,' Anvita Abbi. The Andamanese peoples originated from Africa having migrated around 70,000 years ago and some of their languages may also be up to 70,000 years old, so this is a very special collection indeed, the recordings are also available on Anvita Abbi's Vanishing Voices website, in addition to the collection we also have an Andamanese Awareness link here.

December 2022

- Trade mark registration certificate has been received, 'Ambientscape Community Interest Company' is officially a registered trade mark and has been entered in the register on the 9-12-2022.

- The Black Patti and Paramount Collections have been added to the Ambientscape Archive website.

- In discussions with the British Library to possibly contribute toward, and work with their Sound Archive.

- The Decca West Africa Collection has been included on the site from the British Library's Sound Archive Collection.

- The Black Europe Archive has been added to the Ambientscape site which is currently the most extensive collection of early Black European recordings online to date from the deleted Black Europe Bear Records Box Set.

November 2022

- Will be collaborating with the London Metropolitan Archive hopefully for next year.

October 2022

- In talks with the London Metropolitan Archive.

- CLPGS Lectures will now be made available on the Ambientscape Website offering valuable and rare information on the history of the Phonograph, Gramophone, Recorded Sound, Music and Technology.

September 2022

- Attended a presentation and awarded the 2022 Richard Taylor Bursary by the City of London Phonograph and Gramophone Society, the meeting was held at Conway Hall, Red Lion Square Ethical Society on the 20th September 2022.

- The Ambientscape Community Interest Company trade mark name has been published and now awaiting completion of the process and official register.

August 2022

- Announcement of the 2022 Richard Taylor Bursary Award has been given with the Ambientscape Project having been one of 2 winners for this year's entries.

- The Ambientscape Project has been mentioned in the 'For the Record' magazine's autumn 2022 publication, issue number: 83 which gives details of the 2022 Bursary Award winners and also outlines the Ambientscape Project's objectives.

- The Ambientscape Project has been incorporated as a Community Interest Company and registered with Companies House.

- Had a lot of fun completing a score for the Spitfire Bridgerton Competition the submission is available here.

July 2022

- The Ambientscape Project's Crystal Radio Receiver Station has been officially launched and licensed with PRS and PPL, broadcasting will be every Thursday.

Background Image: Newspaper founder Robert S. Abbott checking copy fresh from the printing press at the African American newspaper the Chicago Defender. Photo by Gordon Coster/The LIFE Picture