I composed this collection of music over nine years, from 2011 to 2020, using recordings of bird song featured on the red and amber lists of endangered British birds (with the exception of a Robin and a Blackbird, which aren’t endangered – yet).

The album starts at night with a Nightjar and a Nightingale. The music progresses, track by track, through dawn and day time, round to the evening chorus and back to night with another Nightingale and an Owl. Cuckoo Song, composed by Benjamin Britten, features the sound of a Cuckoo singing above Britten’s grave in Aldeburgh Cemetery, recorded by the soundscape ecologist Bernie Krause.

I couldn’t help but include a recording of a Sheldrake, the bird that my family is named after, which is also on the amber list. I hope that this music may serve as a wake up call: to help us become more aware of the glorious polyphonic soundworlds that surround us before many of these voices become extinct in Britain, and to remind us not to take any of these creatures and the music that they make for granted.

Featured Birds: Robin, Blackbird, Willow Warbler, Marsh Warbler, Ring Ouzel, Mistle Thrush, Nightingale, Dunnock, Sheldrake, Nightjar, Short Eared Owl, Long Eared Owl, Little Owl, Barn Owl, Tawny Owl, Turtle Dove, Cuckoo, Teal, Bittern.

Because the album is composed entirely out of recordings of these birds, 50% of the publishing royalties of Wake Up Calls is distributed among conservation organisations that work specifically with the featured bird species or the ecosystems they inhabit

Below is a list of the organisations supported:

https://www.norfolkwildlifetrust.org.uk/home
https://www.kentwildlifetrust.org.uk/
https://www.suffolkwildlifetrust.org/
https://www.wildlifebcn.org/
https://www.hertswildlifetrust.org.uk/
https://www.cumbriawildlifetrust.org.uk/
https://www.essexwt.org.uk/

You can listen to the album on streaming platforms and order on vinyl from my webstore here.

Tracklist:

1 Nightjar

2. Nightingale Part 1

3. Dawn Chorus 

4. Skylark 

5. Cuckoo

6. Marsh Warbler

7. Cuckoo Song 

8. Dunnock

9. Bittern

10. Evening Chorus

11. Mistle Thrush

12. Nightingale Part 2

13. Owl Song