Wilderness Tracks // Timber Festival

Actress, presenter and author Janet Ellis joins Geoff Bird for a live recording on our Wilderness Tracks podcast. Janet discusses the six pieces of music that connect her to nature.

Janet Ellis trained at the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama. Best known for presenting Blue Peter, she stars in numerous radio and TV programmes and in 2018 appeared at the Edinburgh Festival. In 2016 Janet was awarded an MBE for services to charities and theatre. A graduate of the Curtis Brown creative writing course, her debut novel, The Butcher’s Hook, was longlisted for the Desmond Elliott Prize.

Raynor Winn, author of the international bestsellers The Salt Path and The Wild Silence, talks to Geoff about her six nature-related tracks. 

Sharing the inspiration behind her 'Wilderness Tracks', Raynor takes us on a journey through her childhood, into an adulthood peppered with adventure, fulfilment, hardship, and the constant pull of the natural world.

Raynor Winn’s first book, The Salt Path, became an international bestseller and sold in twenty countries. It was shortlisted for the 2018 Costa Biography Award; shortlisted for the Wainwright Golden Beer Book Prize 2018 and was the winner of the Royal Society of Literature Christopher Bland Prize 2018. The Wild Silence was shortlisted for the 2021 Indie Book Awards and the 2021 Wainwright Prize. The Salt Path has also been optioned for a film.

Raynor Winn is a regular long-distance walker and writes about nature, homelessness, and our relationship to the land. She lives in Cornwall with her husband Moth.

Place yourself gently amongst the sounds of the world’s woodlands and the caressing tremor of ambient gongs in order to centre your mind, improve mindfulness and find inner peace.

This is the Sounds of the Forest podcast — three episodes welcoming you into a unique soundworld using a carefully selected range of recordings taken from our soundmap, created by hundreds of people all around the world. Another time, perhaps, you can listen to our other tracks - ‘calm’ and ‘focus’.
To find out more about the Sounds of the Forest project — timberfestival.org.uk/soundsoftheforest/

Sounds of the Forest Soundscapes was supported by The Space and Arts Council England with funding from the National Lottery.

Use the forest as a place to find focus, whether that be for study, work or a sense of clarity. Find inspiration in the vibrant and fresh sounds of nature with this beautiful soundscape as the trees sway, the leaves rustle and the birds sing.

This is the Sounds of the Forest podcast — three episodes welcoming you into a unique soundworld using a carefully selected range of recordings taken from our soundmap, created by hundreds of people all around the world. Another time, perhaps, you can listen to our other tracks - ‘calm’ and ‘meditate’.
To find out more about the Sounds of the Forest project — timberfestival.org.uk/soundsoftheforest/

Sounds of the Forest Soundscapes was supported by The Space and Arts Council England with funding from the National Lottery.

Immerse yourself in the soothing sounds of the great global wildwood in order to ease your mind and calm your senses. Slow down, breathe deeper and find tranquility as you tune in to the harmonies of the natural world.

This is the Sounds of the Forest podcast — three episodes welcoming you into a unique soundworld using a carefully selected range of recordings taken from our soundmap, created by hundreds of people all around the world. Another time, perhaps, you can listen to our other tracks - ‘focus’ and ‘meditate’.
To find out more about the Sounds of the Forest project — timberfestival.org.uk/soundsoftheforest/

Sounds of the Forest Soundscapes was supported by The Space and Arts Council England with funding from the National Lottery.

From the January 10th, Timber Festival will be bringing you three unique tracks featuring sounds of forests and woodlands from around the world. Harness the power of nature to calm your senses, focus your mind and guide you in quiet meditation. These soundscapes have been created using audio recordings from our project Sounds of the Forest, the first ever forest soundmap of the world. Listen to the map and upload your own sounds at timberfestival.org.uk/soundsoftheforest

Natalie Haynes, an award-winning comedian, author, journalist, and broadcaster talks to Geoff Bird about her six nature-related tracks. Although, Natalie claims not to know much about music, her selections paint a vivid picture of her influences. From Tom Waits’ ‘Shiver Me Timbers’ inspiring her writing about Classical Greek characters who live by the sea, walking in nature to find clarity in her writing process, to Steve Earle & The Del McCoury Band’s ‘The Mountain’ evoking grandeur, solace and peril all at the same time. Throughout, she takes us on a whistle-stop tour of Greek mythology in between each track and shows us just why she’s one of our most exciting authors standing up for the Classics.

Hip-Hop MC, writer, theatre maker and world record breaking human beatboxer Testament talks about his six tracks inspired by nature.  He talks about discovering beauty in the banal when doing a English project in rural Suffolk, the poetic power found in MCs who come from the countryside and the eternal value of creative engagement with young people. Recorded live at Timber Festival 2022.
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In the Wilderness Tracks, writers, artists, scientists and thinkers talk with producer Geoff Bird about six pieces of music that somehow connect them to nature.

Chumbawumba-star turned author Boff Whalley talks about fell-running, the arthouse film Koyaanisqatsi and Philip Glass’ seminal soundtrack, the right to roam, the power of art and music to galvanise social change and even performing his own song ‘These Hills are Ours’. Recorded live at Kendal Mountain Festival 2021.
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In the Wilderness Tracks, writers, artists, scientists and thinkers talk with producer Geoff Bird about six pieces of music that somehow connect them to nature.

Broadcast journalist Gavin Esler discusses his politically charged book How Britain Ends - how he travelled across the devolved four nations of Britain in writing the book, a chance encounter with Native American flutist Carlos Nakai, the evocative power of Bob Dylan, and a broad and beautiful selection of music from far flung places.

After a brilliant 2021 Timber Festival, we're back with another episode from this year's celebration in the National Forest. Poet Laureate, Simon Armitage, joins his old friend Geoff to talk about his shifting relationship with nature, gushing over his encounter with Iceland and Björk's serene 'The Anchor Song',  performing poetry up and down the Pennine Way and amongst other things, the magnificent invention of the CD Walkman and the portability of music.
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In the Wilderness Tracks, writers, artists, scientists and thinkers talk with producer Geoff Bird about six pieces of music that somehow connect them to nature.

Beloved Lancashire actor, known for playing Hayley Cropper on Coronation Street, Julie Hesmondhalgh joins us for Wilderness Tracks recorded live at Timber Festival 2021. Julie is deeply passionate about nature and has written about it as a space in which to anchor her feelings about family, place and identity.
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In the Wilderness Tracks, writers, artists, scientists and thinkers talk with producer Geoff Bird about six pieces of music that somehow connect them to nature.

Dame Evelyn Glennie, arguably the world's premier percussionist talks us through creating the sound of icicles, growing up in remote Scotland, the 'feel' of sound, her wonderful peripatetic schoolteacher,  playing flowerpots to  stunning effect, waterphones, Tan Dun and manipulating a metal truck silencer to evoke the sound of thunder in a cave.
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In the Wilderness Tracks, writers, artists, scientists and thinkers talk with producer Geoff Bird about six pieces of music that somehow connect them to nature.

Cal Major: ocean advocate, veterinary surgeon,adventure-seeker and proper paddleboarder sits down with Geoff Bird to discuss her six nature related tracks that chronicle her journey around activism. She covers why it's important to remain positive when discussing the climate crisis, becoming a dive master in Australia and hearing Bob Marley  on repeat from the bar she lived above, her time in Plymouth joining up with Surfers Against Sewagewhilst listening to Cat Empire, becoming the first woman to paddleboard around the Isle of Skye as well as grief over losing a friend and how her relationship with the outdoors deepened because of it. Formidable doesn't even cut it. This episode was recorded at and produced in conjunction with the Kendal Mountain Festival. 
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In the Wilderness Tracks, writers, artists, scientists and thinkers talk with producer Geoff Bird about six pieces of music that somehow connect them to nature.

Novelist and nature writer, Melissa Harrison takes Goeff Bird on a walk around her rural Suffolk locale to discuss her six nature related tracks. Her latest book, 'The Stubborn Light of Things', also came in the form a podcast over the course of lockdown starting in early 2020 and documented the wonder and richness of the natural world. Her selections take two paths: one firmly rooted in her love of dance, electronic and ambient music (see: Peter Rogers, Grasscut), the other highlighting classical and folk traditions (Ralph Vaughan Williams, Sam Lee). As they walk,  Melissa describes the rush of hearing Sam Lee's rendition of 'Green Grow the Rushes-O',  the ahead-of-her-time musician Virginia Astley, marvel at a magnificent oak tree and role of nature in her books- standard fare for another episode of the Wilderness Tracks.
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In the Wilderness Tracks, writers, artists, scientists and thinkers talk with producer Geoff Bird about six pieces of music that somehow connect them to nature.

The beloved actress and childrens tv presenter, Baroness Floelle Benjamin talks of nurturing her family garden, the velvety qualities of Sarah Vaughan’s voice, singing on stage with her jazz-playing dad and how important it was for her to see Jamaican-American actor Harry Belafonte on the silver screen in ‘Island in the Sun’ when she was growing up. Plus, Baroness Benjamin rounds off her selections with the incredible 5th Dimension's 'Aquarius/Let the Sun Shine' medley!
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In the Wilderness Tracks, writers, artists, scientists and thinkers talk with producer Geoff Bird about six pieces of music that somehow connect them to nature.

The author of 'Grief is the Thing with Feathers' and 'Lanny', Max Porter,  walks with Geoff through a woodland near Bath, talks about playing the clarinet (cue Gerald Finzi's Clarinet Concerto), listening for birds, June Tabor, the relationship between humans and cities in the wake of lockdown and the power of Source Direct's jungle breaks that soundtracked his youth.

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In the Wilderness Tracks, writers, artists, scientists and thinkers talk with producer Geoff Bird about six pieces of music that somehow connect them to nature.

The space scientist and BBC presenter of The Sky at Night, joins Geoff Bird to discuss her obsession with the moon, viewing the lights of London from Hampstead Heath, her plans to retire to Mars and contemplates the natural beauty of the cosmos. Abandoning the usual six-track format, Maggie chooses eight tracks, from Stevie Wonder to Holst's Mars to Gershwin, in this first episode from the second series of the Wilderness Tracks. 
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In the Wilderness Tracks, writers, artists, scientists and thinkers talk with producer Geoff Bird about six pieces of music that somehow connect them to nature.

Geoff sits down with one of our best-loved comedians; sometime artist and Never Mind the Buzzcocks veteran Phill Jupitus. They talk travelling, the physicality of geography and the incredible microclimate of Fife, the place Phill now calls home. Witty, acerbic observations abound.
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In the Wilderness Tracks, writers, artists, scientists and thinkers talk with producer Geoff Bird about six pieces of music that somehow connect them to nature.

The world-renowned music writer Laura Barton talks about the sublime sounds of Andrew Bird, Smog and John Benjamin, the evocative power of songs and how she ended up friends with Bon Iver's dad.
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In the Wilderness Tracks, writers, artists, scientists and thinkers talk with producer Geoff Bird about six pieces of music that somehow connect them to nature.

For anyone who caught Elizabeth Alker’s ambient set at the Eyrie Stage at Timber 2018, they might spot one or two of the selections creeping into this wilderness tracklist. Her choices are a fascinating reflection of her musical tastes as well as an insight into the profound relationship she feels with the natural world.
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In the Wilderness Tracks, writers, artists, scientists and thinkers talk with producer Geoff Bird about six pieces of music that somehow connect them to nature.

Word-collector, mountain climber and perhaps our greatest contemporary nature writer, Robert Macfarlane (Underland, The Lost Words), delivers an eclectic selection with all the eloquence, warmth and wisdom that you would expect. Prepare for a diverse sonic exploration which reaches as much into traditional Gaelic folk-stylings as it does into drum and bass. Macfarlane knows how to keep a crowd enthralled and does it with deftness and ease. 
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In the Wilderness Tracks, writers, artists, scientists and thinkers talk with producer Geoff Bird about six pieces of music that somehow connect them to nature.

Musician Erland Cooper hails from the Orkney Islands, a landscape untouched and exposed. Each of Cooper's choices comes with unique stories about his time growing up there. Listen out for one particular highlight of the cacophony of Orkney curlews, produced by each audience member's mobile phone.
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In the Wilderness Tracks, writers, artists, scientists and thinkers talk with producer Geoff Bird about six pieces of music that somehow connect them to nature.