Soft Wind in the Sand Dunes in the Sahara Desert

Soft wind and sand spray recorded in the remotest parts of the Sahara desert. Listen to wind as it blows around huge pinnacles set between gigantic sand dunes.

The soundscape of the desert is wild and sparse. It’s by no means lush or extremely varied – the extremely few species calling this place home have to carefully manage their energy so they rarely call. This makes the wind the most widespread and ubiquitous sound source. Wind on its own does not make much sound though. It has to interact with objects and surfaces to become audible, even at high intensities. Luckily the Sahara desert is rich in rocks, pinnacles, mountains, valleys and of course lots and lots of sand. Wind interacting with these topographical features creates endless soundscape variations. Tassili N’Ajjer is a vast plateau in the border areas of Algeria, Niger, Libya and Mali – right in the center of the Sahara. It’s far enough from civilisation so I could go there and record without the fear of capturing man-made sounds. Landscape features like the ones I mentioned earlier abound here. This is an amazing playground for someone like me – exploring the desert and its soundscapes.