(SOUNDBITE OF ONR + THE LISTENING PLANET SONG, "THE LOWS")
ROB SCHMITZ, HOST:
For most of us, to hear the birds of the Scottish Highlands - the skylark, the curlew and the wind over the moor - we need somebody else to go there with a microphone. Martyn Stewart has been doing that for decades. He's an audio naturalist, collecting a library of tens of thousands of sounds and documenting the sounds of a changing planet. And his latest project adds music to the mix.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "THE LOWS")
ONR: (Singing) God knows, these are the lows.
SCHMITZ: Martyn Stewart collaborated with the music producer Robert Shields - also known as ONR - on their new release, "Imperfect Cadence." Both of them join me now. Good morning.
ROBERT SHIELDS: Good morning.
MARTYN STEWART: Good morning.
SCHMITZ: Martyn, I want to start with that song we just heard, titled "The Lows." Tell us about where it was recorded.
STEWART: Culloden Moor, just outside Inverness. It's just one of the most haunting places on Earth to me. You get that feeling of being in a place that is virtually untouched. That feeling of history and humbleness - I don't know. It's got that dark feeling, as well. So much of Scotland is like that, you know. It kind of engulfs you.
SCHMITZ: That feeling that everything is bigger than you.
STEWART: Yeah, always. Nature's always bigger than me.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "THE LOWS")
ONR: (Singing) Oh, calm the hour. Yeah. Calm the man, calm the power.
SCHMITZ: Now, Robert, what did you want to capture about that place when you started pairing music with Martyn's recordings?
SHIELDS: I spent a huge part of my childhood on the Black Isle in Scotland, which looks out over the cliff tops - pretty much on to Culloden, really. There were several places like that. When Martyn gave me the audio, these kind of pristine recordings of these environments, you close your eyes and you're there. And I really didn't want to mess all over the top of it. I wanted to treat it as a collaborator and not a canvas, you know?
SCHMITZ: Right. You don't want to pave a road right through nature.
SHIELDS: Exactly, 'cause that's exactly the kind of point we're trying to make.
(SOUNDBITE OF ONR + THE LISTENING PLANET SONG, "I WILL WAIT")
SCHMITZ: One that stood out for me was on the track titled "I Will Wait."
(SOUNDBITE OF ONR + THE LISTENING PLANET SONG, "I WILL WAIT")
SCHMITZ: Now, Martyn, what are we hearing here?
STEWART: So I went to Rannoch Moor many times. I stayed at the base of Loch Rannoch itself. The length of the loch is probably about 15-20 miles, and I used to do it on a little bike. You follow the telegraph wires. And always, in Scotland, the signature bird to me is the curlew and the lapwings which are around. And the wind is just something that cuts through you.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "I WILL WAIT")
ONR: (Singing) Time...
STEWART: It's bleak. It's desolate. It's wonderful.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "I WILL WAIT")
ONR: (Singing) ...Will wait.
STEWART: You could plant yourself on Rannoch Moor and say you're here in 1745, and there's nothing to make you think otherwise.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "I WILL WAIT")
ONR: (Singing) I...
SHIELDS: That was one of the first songs I sent Martyn when I was still worried whether he would like me or not.
(LAUGHTER)
SHIELDS: And the music had to take its time and eke into the audio, because it's such an atmospheric - the wind howls through Rannoch Moor. You know, you feel cold just listening to that audio.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "I WILL WAIT")
ONR: (Singing) Can run, run, run, run away.
SCHMITZ: And Martyn, you know, I would love to hear about some of the more challenging recording trips that you've been on over the years, fully recognizing that probably all of them are pretty challenging (laughter).
STEWART: I was going to say - they're all challenging. If you're willing to go out for eight hours and be elated at the sound of 20 seconds of vocalizations, you've got to be - there's something crazy with you. But since I was 11, I stole my brother's microphone. It was - he used to play in a rock band. He didn't have the best voice. He didn't have a voice like Robert's at all.
SCHMITZ: (Laughter).
STEWART: So I thought I'd put it for better use and go around the hedgerows of where I was living. I had a kind of disruptive family life when I was young. There wasn't food on the table. And I found my sanctuary by going into the bluebell woods and jamming with blackbirds and thrushes and wrens and chiffchaffs. And for 58 years, I've been recording the natural world, from the South Pole to the North Pole. And the Earth and the planet is under immense stress, and audio is a good barometer. It's very hard to get out there and record something without manmade noise interference. But that's why Scotland is so special.
(SOUNDBITE OF ICE CREAKING)
SCHMITZ: One of your recordings on your site is of ice forming underwater. How did you record that?
STEWART: Now, if I tell you that, then you'll know as much as I do.
(LAUGHTER)
STEWART: I used a terrestrial microphone on the top of the ice.
SCHMITZ: OK.
STEWART: And then I created a hole and dropped a hydrophone underneath of the ice. And every time I put pressure on the ice, you get those - ch-jung, ch-jung, ch-jung.
(SOUNDBITE OF ICE CREAKING)
SCHMITZ: It almost sounds like a door, like, with a rusty hinge is slowly opening and closing. It's just beautiful.
SHIELDS: That was the first recording Martyn, you - that I opened when you sent me it, and I was absolutely blown away. I couldn't...
SCHMITZ: It's stunning.
SHIELDS: ...Believe how perfect it was. Yeah.
STEWART: Can I just add this, as well? The music that Robert created for all these soundscapes - he gave respect to the natural world. And I've always been skeptical of putting music to natural sounds. Robert blew it out the water.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "YOU AND I")
ONR: (Singing) You and I.
STEWART: And the fact that the guy's Scottish, too, puts the cherry on the top of the cake.
SHIELDS: Thank you.
SCHMITZ: That's Martyn Stewart and Robert Shields, who records music as ONR. Their album is "Imperfect Cadence." Thanks so much to you both.
SHIELDS: Thank you.
STEWART: Thank you so much, mate.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "YOU AND I")
ONR: (Singing) You and I. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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