Gordon Hempton

Gordon Hempton rose to a decent amount of fame as a recorder and producer of natural and environmental sounds. His involvement between the late '80s and early '90s with two widely known series of releases on Miramar made him one of the most highly reputed and best-selling environmental recording artists in the world. With Miramar, he produced Dawn Chorus, Cedar Creek, Ebb and Flow, Old Growth, Wilderness Journey, Earth's Morning Song, Okanogan Overture, Tennessee Nightwalk, and Rolling Thunder. The commercial success of these records was partially due to the collision of cultural trend in the United States and the radical development of the quality of nature recordings. Rolling Thunder is the documentation of the natural sounds of a thunder storm, and because of its rare lack of distortion at the storms most violent bursts, it is one of the best examples of his work. Technically, Hempton's approach to the field is very thoughtful and well-calculated. One of the most admirable qualities of his work is his ability to capture natural sounds with a field recording approach that relies on little or no post-production. The majority of his available commercial releases can be seen as atypical nature sound recordings, and his success in that field has enabled him to creatively expand the art of listening, often experimenting with natural sound installations such as huge caverns or natural embankments of driftwood. In 1992, he was a recipient of an Emmy for writing, recording, and directing the PBS documentary The Vanishing Dawn Chorus. The project was one of his most ambitious commercial releases for that time, drawing on a global and diverse palate of sounds that included everything from the Amazon Delta to the Australian Outback. A constant auditor of the rich soundscape of nature, Hempton makes his home in the sonically fascinating landscape of the Pacific Northwest.