Small Sounds For Small Bugs

 It was quite a coincidence that Moon Musiq put a call out for bug theme tracks, right as I was working on a bug themed selection of tracks that may form a future Soloman Tump release.

I am constantly fascinated by the world of the small.... recently I have been lichen spottng with the Devon Biodiversity Records Centre, and also with a local charitable farm via the PlantLife scheme.  I bought one of those little loupe finger magnifying lenses and it is amazing what you can discover.  

Here is just a small selection of what I have snapped recently.  Some accurate bug descriptions... some unidentified as yet (I am learning, go easy)

Lichen up on Dartmoor

Snails enjoying the warmth of the tree guard

Bug!

Lethal looking fly!

Phyllopertha Horticola on Dartmoor (in their hundreds....)

Unknown little caterpillar

Drinker Moth caterpillar

Big slug!

Nice looking shield bug?

Camouflaged spider with not so camouflaged egg sac

Leech at Haytor quarry pond

Beautiful Demoiselle on the bunting in our garden

And so to the music.... Small Sounds For Small Bugs is a compilation of 30 tracks by 30 artists, each lasting 30 seconds exactly.  So it plays out as a sort of mixtape totalling exactly 15 minutes.  Plenty of samples, ideas, scuttling, rustling, noises and samples as you can imagine.  

My track was fun to work on, it started as a shuffling percussive loop idea I had for a longer track but I ended up just trimming it back to the requisite 30 seconds and adding some of my trademark noise layers to make it less accessible.

Small Sounds For Small Bugs

So tons of inspiration from the small creatures.  I named my track "Narrow Headed Ant" after the very rare type of ant which is found on one nature reserve in all of England... about 5 miles from my home.  It builds a sort of thatched hat for the nest, creating warmth and safety.  There is not much of the specific heathland habitat left for them and they never travel far to create new nests.  So their numbers are critically limited thanks to humans building every bloodywhere. 

As ever, Moon Musiq are raising funds for the GEMS-Girls charity in the USA so any donations you care to make towards the compilation will be greatly received.