greensound

Far shore

Or mix your own

Field recordings

Yucatán Peninsula, Mexico

Field recordings

Oaxaca, Mexico

Real field recordings. We name the recordist whenever we know who it was.

Noise

Made in your browser, not a recording.

Your mix

  • green

green

Made in your browser

Session length

Far shore is a real field recording of the sea heard from a distance, at Puerto Escondido on the Pacific coast of Oaxaca, Mexico. Leonardo Santiago, a Mexican field recordist, made it and released it into the public domain. Its source gives no date, so we show none.

What you're hearing

Surf far off, a low and even wash rather than waves you could count, looped so it plays as long as you like. Play it quietly and it sits at the edge of hearing, the way the sea does from a room a few streets back. If you'd like the waves close, beach waves, recorded on Mexico's Caribbean coast, is one tap away.

Where the sound comes from

Far shore. Recorded by Leonardo Santiago at Puerto Escondido, Oaxaca, Mexico. Public domain (CC0). Original recording on freesound.org

Listen safely

This is a sound, played back through whatever speaker or headphones you already own. It doesn't diagnose, measure, or promise anything about how you sleep, focus, or feel — it's just noise and a handful of real recordings, mixed the way you like them.

Keep the volume low enough that you'd still notice a smoke alarm, a phone ringing, or someone at the door. If you fall asleep in headphones, choose a volume and a pair you'd be comfortable wearing all night, and a session length that ends when you'd want the sound to stop.

If you use this near a baby, keep the speaker several feet from the crib, never inside or clipped to it, and keep the volume low — the same care you'd take with any sound machine in a nursery.

If your relationship with sound, or with sleep, feels difficult rather than simply restless, a doctor or audiologist is the right person to talk to. This is a mixer, not a clinician.

Where is Puerto Escondido?

A town on the Pacific coast of the Mexican state of Oaxaca. This recording is of its sea, heard from a distance.

Who recorded it?

Leonardo Santiago, who describes himself as a Mexican phonographer, or field recordist. He released it under CC0, so anyone may use it. We credit him anyway.

How is it different from beach waves?

Beach waves was recorded on the beach at Punta Allen, on the Caribbean side of Mexico. Far shore is the Pacific heard from far away, so it is softer and more even.

Why is there no date?

Its source says when it was uploaded, not when it was recorded, and an upload date isn't a recording date. We leave the date out rather than guess.