In this episode I’m taking you for an evening at a secluded cove on the Caribbean island of Jamaica.
As darkness falls here the air fills with these distinctive high-pitched two-note chirping calls… sometimes mistaken for crickets, they’re actually Whistling Frogs (Eleutherodactylus johnstonei). Although tiny and incredibly hard to see, they dominate the night and seem like an integral part of the native soundscape – so I was surprised to learn they are note native here, but were deliberately introduced to Jamaica from the Lesser Antilles around 1890, soon spreading across the island.
The path down to this small cove at Goldeneye - the place where Ian Fleming wrote the James Bond novels, was via a walkway lined by these tiny, vocal amphibians. The small cove makes a natural amphitheatre for the gentle waves to create a wonderful mix of rippling and lapping. Use headphones to get the full effect of my binaural recordings – and experience this lush soundscape as if you’re there!
There was one other detail – the waves were driving air in and out of a small drainage pipe … a kind of primitive ‘sea harp’ creating a wonderfully somnolent deep breathing. In my imagination it transformed into the hypnotic breath of Calypso – not the powerful ‘Goddess of all the Sea’ reimagined in the film Pirates of the Caribbean. But the sea nymph of ancient mythology - known for her magical abilities and seductive beauty which she used to keep sailors captive on a mythical island…
