Suffolk Libraries has launched a weekly sound walk with its new environmentalist in residence.

Martin Scaiff, a field recordist and teacher, joined the library in April for a six-month partnership, supported by Arts Council England.

His first project will be Seconds of Sound, a weekly meet up and nature walk encouraging people to listen to their natural surroundings and walk between two of the 45 Suffolk libraries.

Martin says: “The modern public library is arguably a noisier place than ever before.

"Just like the modern world, with acoustic habitats unencumbered by human generated sound becoming few, and getting farther between.

"As environmental sound is commonly an aspect of our lives that is borderless and beyond our control, think of traffic or industrial noise, we often take back control by creating individual acoustic habitats, increasingly through technology but also by isolating ourselves in other ways. This isolation has consequences for the natural world.

“As our encounters with the infinite richness and complexity of natural sound decrease, the appreciation of its influence and importance declines in equal measure.

"Through technology we can listen to environmental sound from all over the world like never before, but in a search for meaning, the basis of caring, nothing beats actively listening for a few seconds to wherever you are, right now.

“The countless opportunities for active listening presented by my residency at Suffolk Libraries fills me with an almost overwhelming excitement.

"I’m delighted to be invited to take up this role, not least because I imagine I’m going to be pretty fit by the end of it.”

Each walk will be sound recorded and live-streamed to allow people to join the artist in person or remotely.

Additionally, each library will have a “museum in a box”, allowing an immersive experience where people can listen to sounds associated with different objects.

Mr Scaiff has a long-standing passion for nature, having established HomeSounds in 2016, which encourages young people to benefit from listening to nature.

The weekly sound walks are open to everyone, with the chance to dip in and out as you like.