African Jungle is a huge collection of unique ambiences recorded in Central Africa’s Congo Basin rainforests, in Gabon and the Republic of the Congo. To my knowledge, these are the first surround field recordings made in this area. Last year I spent a whole month off the grid, listening to and recording a variety of habitats at all times of day and night, at the height of the rainy season when birds are most vocal. It took me many days of travel to get to these places, from using trains, boats, cars and planes to hiking on foot in the jungle.

The library covers the following locations:

extremely remote primary rainforests unknown to the Western world until 20 years ago and untouched by logging for thousands of years

an even more remote baï in these rainforests, basically a huge clearing with a mud pool in the center where elephants and other wildlife congregate

dense secondary rainforest that has at some point been subjected to logging but has since grown back; this type of biome features dense undergrowth as opposed to little to none in the primary rainforests, which results in rather different acoustics

young forests in remote places on the border between Gabon and Congo; these forests are no more than a few hundred years old but harbor a great diversity of wildlife species, different from what can be found in primary or secondary rainforests

ravines, clearings, mango groves and banana patches; all impacted by human activity but still full of wildlife and birdsong

All times of day and night are covered. A few of the soundscapes feature soft wind, rain and thunder most of them are recorded during calm weather. A good part however features fog drip and humidity falling on vegetation which is typical of lowland rainforests. The acoustics range from muffled and reverberant in true rainforests to bright and open in ravines and clearings.

The soundscape ranges from soft rain and subtle insect chorus to full-on biophony and deafening thunder, with many stages in between. Lush dawn choruses abound, piercing insect calls are present in night recordings, a few species of frogs can be heard and several mammals complement the mix.