Like this English spring in the year 2023, this springtime mix comes late as spring morphs into summer. It’s been a short spring, squeezed into May after an elongated winter and months of rain.

So the inspiration to resume work on the mix, after two years of mulling, came late. Never mind, the music feels light enough, lazy enough for hot early summer days.

We start with Suffolk birdsong, the dawn chorus, quintessential sound of springtime. So much of our springtime lives are at least partially soundtracked by birdsong, even if only heard through windows. So birdsong is a recurring motif throughout, even when we travel to other lands and other landscapes. We will hear birds from the rainforest in addition to those from a disused railway arch in Suffolk, and possibly some from Japan and North America too.

We gather some pace in the middle, a spring in the step if you like but not too much, dancing barefoot in the head perhaps. 

You will hear music from Hania Rani, Fubuutsushi, Arooj Aftab, Vijay Iyer, Shahzad Ismaily, Field Works, Hinako Omori, Felcia Atkinson, Loris S. Sarid, Morgan Szymanski and Tommy Perman, Mushrooms Project, Minami Deutsch, Penguin Cafe Orchestra, Shabaka Hutchings, Robert Haigh and hundreds, maybe thousands of songbirds.