PLUMES emerges from a long-term sonic and ethnographic exploration of the Étang de Berre, a coastal lagoon near Marseille, France shaped by industrial pollution and ecological disruption. Recorded between 2021 and 2024, the album captures fragile entanglements between human activity and more-than-human life. Using hydrophones, ultrasonic detectors, and parabolic microphones, Bullock and Silva probe the lagoon’s submerged acoustics, bat echolocations, and the overlapping signals of industry and wildlife. Rather than documenting from a distance, PLUMES listens closely to a damaged landscape. It invites us to hear what contamination, survival, and resilience sound like, and proposes listening as a way to inhabit the complexity of a territory in flux.

Gallery below: Photos by Jeff Silva, illustrations by Mike Bullock

1. Surface Pressures

2. Sirènes

3. Tawny Owls at Cercle de Voile

4. Tétrodon beach

5. Bats Among the Ruins

6. Stagnum Mastromela

7. “The Venice of Provence”

8. Croix-Saint Plateau

9. Casting Lines in the Channel

10. Living With Cogeneration

11. From Ponteau Beach to the Calanque de Renaïres

12. La Fermette de la Croix d’Estrine