Solitude Canyon

This track sounds exactly like wind moving through Ponderosa pine forest, which has a unique quality different from other types of trees. A very soothing sound of my childhood spent in the woods around my grandparents' home. This is definitely a favorite!

Although I've reviewed this track before, I feel compelled to write again in response to something another listener wrote. In his review, he suggested that this was the sound of a basically dead environment by saying that the only signs of life were the occasional cries of birds. I have spent a great deal of time in the Sierra Nevada mountains surrounding California's San Joaquin Valley, where the summers are pretty much always very dry, and the overwhelmingly primary sound you hear on this track is the sound of wind through pine trees that are very much alive--and, God willing, will be for several hundred more years, while others quietly replace them. The only real hint of dryness in this recording is the occasional crackling of underbrush. I have camped extensively not only in the Sierra Nevada, but the Rocky Mountains and the Black Hills of South Dakota, as well, and the lovely sound of wind through pine trees is the same in all three places, be the summers dry, wet, or indifferent. In dry summers, shrubs and thickets do become dry, creating the sound that comes through every so often on this track, but the pine trees, their roots sunk deep in the ground where they can find water, thrive no matter what kind of season they've had. I'll get off my soapbox now; I just couldn't bear for anyone thinking about purchasing this track to picture wind blowing through a forest that looks like a bunch of Christmas trees that have been left up until March. This is a recording that beautifully depicts wind blowing through a pine forest, plain and simple.

The closest any of these tracks have come to depicting a pure pine wind. I find it soft and lulling, not at all strident. The lack of other sounds, other than the rustling of dry vegetation, highlights what I find so lovely--the pine trees giving life to the breeze. Brilliant and beautiful.

I’m a little torn with Solitude Canyon. On one hand, it’s the closest the Naturespace tracks have come to depicting a “dry” environment. The rustling of dry vegetation heard on this track is much different than the usual rustling leaf sounds. You can hear a few different kinds of birds in the distance; just enough to let you know that there’s life around you, and you definitely get the feeling of vast spaces. On the other hand, the wind is so strong that at times that it overpowers the other sounds. It was difficult for me to find a happy listening medium where the wind didn’t seem too loud to be relaxing, but I could still hear the other subtle noises in the track.

Again, wind dominates. Seems to come from above and behind in a distant roar (occasionally becoming strong and loud), with the sound of it occasionally touching down nearby to rustle the dry leaves around you. A warm day at the end of summer in a forested mountain valley.