Izabela Dłużyk’s Soundscapes of summer was A Closer Listen‘s favorite soundscape of 2016, and her latest album is just as remarkable.  For this release, the artist has turned the dial back to spring, and we’re hoping (reasonably so) that the project will eventually become a quadriptych.  The sounds here are as clear as any we’ve ever heard; the mastering is dynamic, the sequencing superb.  To listen is to enter into a dream world that is actually real, including the “endangered Bialowieza primeval forest, Siemianowka lake (and) Biebrza marshes.”  It’s a privilege to be able to hear these environments from the other side of the world, and to wonder at their fullness.  Most people live near birds (or the other way around), but few people live near such a variety of voices.

When it comes to field recordings, proximity is not enough.  One needs the ears to hear these…