Resonance FM kindly agreed to air a soundscape composition that was created in October 2025 by Karl Richard after visiting CAMP FR in the south of France. It was aired on Monday the 7th of September 2026 at 8:00pm GMT.

We would like to offer particular thanks to Peter Lanceley for his encouragement to submit the soundscape composition of the recordings… And are immensely grateful to everyone at Resonance FM, especially Milo Thesiger-Meacham and Solen Fluzin, for all the hard work they do in keeping the community radio station alive and thriving.

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Each year at the start of October, the high mountains and forests of the Ariege region in the French Pyrenees are alive with sound, and play host to one of the most impressive occurrences in the wildlife calendar – the Red Deer rutting season.

Over the last four years CAMP FR has hosted a special October event that welcomes in the autumn and allows keen listeners and wildlife sound recordists and enthusiasts to experience this unique and startling phenomena: a 5 day course entitled “Field Recording: Red Deer Season with Chris Watson”. Most will know that Chris is a well respected sound recordist who has worked for the BBC on many a natural history documentary, and is currently honorary president of the Wildlife Sound Recording Society in the UK, so his knowledge of field recording practices and bush craft is second to none. Anyone lucky enough get a place on the course is usually in for a treat, as it sells out almost immediately after being listed on www.campfr.com.

In 2025 several last minute cancellations offered others a chance to attend this CAMP FR event. So, after acquiring a spot on the course, and under the influence of coffee and with several microphones slung into the back of a car, Karl drove to the south of France in just over 12 hours to walk with some like minded people through the Pyrenean forests and record the raucous calls of the red deer rutting.

Over several days, while under the general guidance of Chris Watson, a small group of people – comprising of Andrew Bailey, Kristina Dutton, Mark Lipman, Karl Richard, and Kaija Siirala – journeyed repeatedly back to a spot near the commune of Le Bosc, about an hour’s drive away from CAMP FR headquarters in Aulus-les-Bains, to make field recordings in an area where the red deer were noted to be particularly active. Each year the deer centre themselves around differing locations in the mountains, so it helps to be fairly mobile in order to locate where they are most vocal and active at any particular time. That said, the deer do tend to remain in a particular locale for a few days at a time. After several journeys back to Le Bosc, and after driving around and listening in different areas, a good locale was discovered and several field recordings were made in this area. From these field recordings and iPhone voice recordings, Karl created the soundscape composition that can be found below.

This one hour programme is essentially a soundscape composition comprised from field recordings captured by Karl Richard and Andrew Bailey, and is produced by Karl Richard at The Orange Hut. This soundscape is offered in the form of a tongue-in-cheek natural history documentary, and tentatively explores how the act of ‘hunting’ has quietly fused with the language and discourse of field recording and sound capture practices. It also looks at the potential dangers that one might encounter whilst engaging in these activities.

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The following listing was provided to Resonance FM:

Red Deer Rutting Season at Camp Fr 2025 – A soundscape composition by Karl Richard

A one off, hour long soundscape composition offering a tongue-in-cheek natural-history style look at the 2025 red deer rutting season at Camp Fr in the south of France. Narrated by Karl Richard and Andrew Bailey. Visit theorangehut.com for more information.

https://www.theorangehut.com/camp-fr-field-recording-red-deer-season-with-chris-watson/

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Thank you to everyone working at, and who attended CAMP FR for this event, making this program possible… James and Sarah Birchall who run CAMP… Andrew Bailey for kindly allowing his own field recordings to be used in this production, and for offering narrative for the program… To Mark Lipman, Kristina Dutton, and Kaija Siirala for their company and alacrity… To Chris Watson for his amazingly warm, open, and friendly demeanour while offering up his knowledge, guidance and expertise gathered from years of experience in the field… And to Mark Peter Wright for sharing, in such detail, his ideas on predation and sound capture at UAL many years ago during his lectures there and, more recently, in his book entitled “Listening After Nature” (Wright 2002, p. 53 – 55).

Bibliography

WRIGHT, M. P. (2022) Listening After Nature – Field Recording, Ecology, Critical Practice. New York: Bloomsbury Academic, Bloomsbury Publishing Inc.