A field recordist and bioacoustic listener explores what a soundscape holds and loses over time. Drawing on Bay Area field recordings, spectrograms, and live sound, this talk moves between ecology and music, tracing how human noise reshapes what we hear, and what it means to really listen.

Presenter Bio

Alex Kalish (he/him) is a field recordist, composer, and founder of Listening Forays, a guided deep listening practice in Bay Area natural areas. Participants experience a landscape’s live soundscape amplified in real time through professional field recording gear and in-ear monitors. A former project manager at Big Sur Land Trust and Peace Corps environmental educator, Alex has been field recording for over fifteen years across California, Jamaica, and Mexico. Every foray produces a field listening report with verified species detections, annotated spectrograms, and edited audio.