The creation of a Mombo soundtrack

With a sparkle in his eye, he told me that in his 21 years of being a guide, no one had ever made such a request. But he was ready to give it his best shot, particularly after I explained its purpose. 

I had come to Mombo – Wilderness’ legendary flagship camp in Botswana’s Okavango Delta – to create a soothing soundtrack for the camp’s new wellness centre, The Sanctuary, using ambient music and sounds from the bush and Mombo itself, animal and human voices. Inanimate sounds. A score to calm, centre, heal, restore – take people out of their generally hectic lives and into nature. Into community. Into themselves.  

Emang and I spent our days and nights capturing the sonic intricacies of our surrounds, our eyes closed and ears to the ground. Like an eagle-owl, Emang could hear sounds kilometres away. The seemingly imperceptible became an amplified pathway to discovery.

Sound, especially across open landscapes, dances in its echoes, interacting with every surface that enters its path. The Delta’s trees and water became springboards for these echoes to scatter and spill into the warm air. High frequencies hurtle into space, whereas low frequencies ooze into the atmosphere like a long, rolling wave. 

In the bush I listened intently, with headphones connected to my surround-sound recording device, trying to zero in on faint murmurings of intrigue. Do you hear that? I’d ask Emang. It’s coming from there. I’d point east. Emang would smile and point west. What you are hearing is coming from there. He was never wrong, of course. He knew every spoor, every termite mound, every sausage tree.

Emang introduced me to so many unique, fascinating sonic textures, forever imprinted on my mind. I could write them almost like a poem; they sounded like one: 

The birdlike chirps of wild dog pups ceremoniously greeting their elders before and after a hunt;

The ominous warning of a scavenging hyena warding off wild dogs, and feverishly giggling as its teeth cracked into an impala’s skull;

The yowls of a skulking black-backed jackal alerting others from afar of imminent danger; 

The Morse code of a Verreaux’s eagle-owl binaurally beating with its harmonious counterpart; 

The deafening wave of 40 buffalo thundering across the Delta; 

The crackling fire of hundreds of termites foraging in dry leaves to offer treasures to their Queen; 

The brassy, misfiring alarm of a male elephant in distress; 

An Elvis-like karaoke from a massive hippo, whose final trick was to open wide and shine his pearly whites against the glistening waters. 

And so much more. 

In camp I recorded the wonderful Mombo staff, who bring the magic to Mombo. I captured them planning festivities for Boma night, or on that night itself singing, chanting and dancing to traditional African rhythms. Getting us moving, feeling Africa’s heartbeat and our own. 

I am forever grateful to all of them. Especially to Emang, whose expertise and intuition were invaluable. Finding these sonic offerings for The Sanctuary soundtrack has opened my ears, eyes and heart to a world where we can conserve, cherish and respectfully live alongside these incredible creatures in the wild – as well as each other. 

Mikhaela Faye is a singer, songwriter, producer and recording artist from Cape Town, South Africa. She composes regularly within the New Age space and loves to capture field recordings.