Tetepare is a wilderness island of the Solomons group in the western Pacific. It is entirely covered in primary rainforest, and one of the few places where the biodiversity of this region can be found and heard intact. Elsewhere throughout the Solomons, timber companies have stripped the forests to the detriment of not only the ecosystems and surrounding reefs, but often the livelihood of traditional peoples. Tetepare is sadly the last, truly wild island.

We begin listening as surf breaks on the barrier reef that surrounds the island. Then, in the darkenss before dawn, we move into the primary rainforest itself. Kingfishers, megapodes, cuckoos, owls, insects and horned frogs call in dark. The ethereal piping of monarchs signals the coming dawn, and with it are heard the soft songs of the island's endemic white-eyes.

Later, the forest presents a diversity of tropical birdsong; metallic starlings feed nearby, lorikeets screech as they wing overhead, mynas whistle richly, singing parrots and ducorp's cockatoos utter melodious cries, fruit pigeons boom deeply, while cicadas chorus in gentle waves. The sounds of two species are especially remarkable; the un-bird-like growls of buff-breasted coucals, and the calls of magnificent blythe's hornbills as they move around the forest on heavy wingbeats.

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We spent ten days on the island making this recording, accompanied by our local guide, Twomey. One of the highlights for us was coming across the extraordinary early dawn singing of the white-capped monarchs. We've made their ethereal songs into a separate album, The Monarchs of Tetepare.