Cley next-the-sea, North Norfolk, Field recording

The next location on my North Norfolk field recording journey was Cley next-the-sea. My recording in Cley was actually in two locations, first on the edge of the village of Cley itself, then onto the shingle of Cley beach.

The first bit of recording was near the famous Cley windmill, now a hotel. i captured small boats moored at the tiny harbour, residents of the hotel having a chinwag and the sounds of the reeds in the wind. Unfortunately as i started recorded on one of the raised banks the wind picked up and my 'dead cat' didn't prevent quite a bit of wind noise, i also hadn't checked the audio levels.

Cley beach was equally windy, depending on what direction i faced the microphone. The light was wonderful, there were a few people on the beach, some sea fishing, some inspecting the various salt wounded fishing vehicles and detritus. In terms of noises there was a fair bit of wind noise :( but also some birds, some people's crunchy footsteps, and some obligatory waves on shingle noises. I'm not sure what i'll use in the music i create for this place, i've already heavily used waves on shingle for the music i've written for one of the previous locations (manipulated using a granular sampler app on my iphone), so unless i can come up with a novel use/manipulation of waves on shingle at this location i'll have to come up with some other idea.

I finished recording in Cley around lunchtime and tried out the Cley marches visitor centre, i'd not been before and its got a great 180 degree view across the Cley marshes, and not a bad bacon bap, would recommend. I think its also a parking point for birders/twitchers/whatever they are called that then make use of the various hides dotted around the marshes.

The next location on my travels and therefore the next post will be Salthouse.