Every year in Glendale, California there’s a charity event known as the “Love Ride”.  Up to 30,000 motorcycle riders (mostly on Harley Hogs) assemble for a ralley.  The streets are blocked off as the event kicks off and the sound is quite amazing… raw power!  I’m usually reminded of the day as I wake up to the earth-quake-like rumble of the motorcycles.  I’ve gone down and recorded those sounds.I decided to make an entire Cd based on the sounds of the Hog.  I included recordings of the “Love Ride” and recorded other bikes of friends.  On one occasion I had my head close to the motor as the engine idled.  The engine was warming up.  During the recording I heard an african rhythm…which gave me an idea.I built an audio track based on the sound and added african drums.  The track starts with an idling cycle and ends up with screaming african drums, tiger growls and sounds of the jungle!  I then decided to create additional musical tracks using the motor cycle as a rhythmic element.  The end result is my Cd:  ”Hog”.  If you ride or know someone who does, this is a totally unique recording they’ve got to hear.

 In my travels around the world I’ve been able to take some fascinating and fun train rides.  I just recently returned from Peru having taken a great train through the Sacred Valley of the Incas along the Urubamba river.  I also have taken trains in India, Mexico, China and other places. Since I usually have my recording gear with me, I enjoy recording the train sounds.  I’m doing a series of soundscape recordings.  One that takes you to Russia is the “Russian Underground” CD (http://sonicsafarimusic.com/music/russianunderground/).  In this CD I recorded things like the underground metro in Moscow and St. Petersburg.  I recorded street musicians and other crazy things like trolly cars, electric trains and even Peter the Greats lathe! Getting back to trains, I put all of those recordings on my CD  “World Trains”.  Put that one and sit back to take a train ride in some exotic location.  Here is the link to hear some of the sounds:  http://sonicsafarimusic.com/music/worldtrains/

I have been lucky enough to have visited a number of rainforests around the world.  I have been to parts of the Amazon in Peru, Colombia and Brazil and to many forests in Costa Rica, Guatemala, Mexico, Thailand, Indonesia and other places I can’t think of at the moment.  I am fascinated by the myriad sounds coming out of the jungle at different times of the day and night….and in different seasons.Some of the most striking sounds are from the amazing howler monkeys.  These animals sound like wild cats or jaguars.  I once was walking along the beach in Costa Rica just outside the rainforest when a girl came running out thinking a jaguar was after her.  She described the sound and I quickly reassured her that is was a harmless monkey up in the trees.You can hear some of these on my recording  ”Costa Rica Rainforest”. Here’s the link to the Cd:  http://sonicsafarimusic.com/music/costaricanrainforest/

I’ve always loved the sound of wind chimes.  I started collecting them quite a while ago.  They provide such soothing sounds.   I was at a local hardware store a few months ago and passed some chimes for sale.  One particular set caught my eye…they were made by a company called Grace Note Chimes (there is a link to them at my sonicsafarimusic web site).  The chimes seemed to ring forever.I decided to create a Cd using only wind chimes.  I contacted the good people at Grace Note Chimes and Mike, the owner, said he’d be happy to help out with the project.  Next thing I knew I had quite a number of these fantastic chimes….of all sizes…tiny and up to 6 feet long.  I spent weeks creating “Wind Chime Music”…it really was quite a challenge but I’m really happy with the way it turned out.Here’s the link where you can hear some samples: http://sonicsafarimusic.com/music/windchime/