Composer Graeme Leak's innovative work records the symphonies of nature

A grouse makes music on specially strung and wired feeding tray in Balfron

The melody of birdsong has forever raised our spirits but a classical composer has revealed how the sounds of birds scratching and pecking can be equally beautiful.

Graeme Leak, whose works have been performed at the Albert Hall, the Montreal Jazz Festival and the Commonwealth Games, has built a novel recording studio in the fields and gardens around his home to record the birds, animals and weather.

The 62-year-old musician – who moved to Scotland from his native Australia in 2015 – hopes his project, called Eco Opera, recording the symphonies of nature close to his home at Balfron, Stirlingshire, and on the other side of the world, will produce music like nothing heard before.

The work will feature instruments “played” by the weather and animals, using the latest technology to amplify normally inaudible noises while everyday sounds are tuned to a new purpose.

“There is music in whatever is around you,” Leak said. “Nature can create some beautiful noises and that is what I set out to capture.”

Leak came here to be with his UK-based film-maker partner Hazel Palmer, who is Eco Opera’s videographer. In between creating wildlife, music and art projects she also works on major events such as Formula One racing, Wimbledon and the Olympics. Leak hit on the idea of creating Eco Opera during lockdown.

He turned to creating and installing self-made instruments that are then “played” by nature, in effect handing over performing responsibilities to the wind, the rain, sheep, birds, cows and rabbits.

He uses specially designed sonic tubes to collect and filter sounds from rural environments and botanic gardens. These recordings are synchronised with location video to create evocative sound art.

Videos to accompany the sounds of the wildlife were shot in Scotland and Australia and have attracted hundreds of thousands of views on YouTube.

“Few of us listen attentively to the sounds of nature that endlessly flood our senses,” he said. “Eco Opera will open your ears to what is going on around you.”

As a composer, Leak has written over 50 works for instruments and voices, including commissions for the 2006 Commonwealth Games and the 2013 Canberra Centenary. His recent works include Spirit Rising for a string-can orchestra with multiple community groups as guest performers.

He also enjoyed 10 years of international touring as a co-creator of The Spaghetti Western Orchestra which presented its unique take on film music at venues and festivals around the world.

“After I moved to Scotland I started wondering what the birds, animals and weather would sound like if I found a way of recording them properly,” he said.

“Lockdowns gave me the perfect opportunity to explore this and I was pleasantly surprised by the results.”

An amplified fence that the birds can perch on and play

To capture the sounds of nature, he created installations such as a bird feeder that has strings and has tuned perches for birds to “play”, creating melodies and rhythms as they peck and flap while feeding.

He also devised an amplified fence that has contact microphones fitted to the post. The slightest touch activates a resonant inner sound world.

However, not all of his subjects are cooperative. The animals are mostly enthusiastic collaborators but some have a bit of attitude, he said. “The cows and sheep in particular can be hilarious,” he said. “They can be very inquisitive about the recording equipment.

“They come over to see what is going on and are curious about the sonic tubes and they like to have a good nosey about.

“We have had incidents where cows and lambs decide that they want to scratch themselves on the equipment and they end up knocking it over.”

Leak said he now plans to run live streams of his recordings created in Scotland and Australia to a worldwide audience. He also hopes to set up installations at art galleries, where people can listen to the musical sounds of local nature that are being captured live by equipment rigged up outside.

He added: “My equipment also picks up sounds such as passing aeroplanes, road traffic and human conversations and this all becomes part of the calm, meditative music that is created.

“It is all very relaxing to listen to.”