Most beautiful sound in the world competition winner Marc Anderson

We checked in with Marc Anderson, winner of the recent Most Beautiful Sound in the World Competition sponsored by The Sound Agency and Beautiful Now, to ask about the winning sound – a recording he calls “Dusk by the Frog Pond”, recorded on site in Kubah National Park, Sarawak, Malaysia.

“It was just by chance I came across the frog pond in Kubah National Park. It appeared to be an ideal location to record, so I set up my microphones and recorder and left them for an hour or so. The forest was pulsing with life – cicadas, frogs, birds, insects. I don’t know if I’ve heard a richer natural chorus than that afternoon in Kubah. Interestingly, one of the frog species which you can hear on the recording was only discovered in 2010.”

Marc describes himself as having, “always had a love for nature. At about the age of 14, I made birdwatching my hobby, enjoying the discovery and satisfaction that comes with seeing new species for the first time. Since then my interest has only grown and I still feel like a big kid with lots to learn.”

In addition to be a professional photographer, in recent years Marc’s become fascinated with the sounds of nature – bioacoustics: “While photography captures one dimension of nature, sound recording opens up a new world of discovery. With the excellent sound equipment available today, I love being able to capture what I feel is even more evocative and more accurate than a visual image, an audio image of a particular location and moment in time.”

You can hear more of Marc’s recordings on his SoundCloud profile, check out his new project called Nature Soundmap, and hear his interviews with Shira White of Beautiful Now and Julian Treasure of the Sound Agency, below.