"This work was made - very deliberately - within the adjoining breeding territories of a small group of Nightingales; Africans who arrive each spring to raise broods and briefly re-assume their roles as the quintessential English songster. Epitomising the romantic notion of spring an the English wood since medieval times. Age old forest metaphors for human love, lust, devotion and liberty. But also: loss, melancholy, sacrifice and 'eternal pain'.

The male's mesmerising territorial proclamations are delivered from deep inside the woodland undergrowth with astonishing power and clarity. A power that arrests and compels attention. They were, of course, a regular
accompaniment. Characteristically however, the secretive 'drab' birds were rarely seen."

 

April and May 2011 & 2012