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In early summer, as darkness descends, Berlin resonates with the sound of nightingales. You can hear their haunting, ever-changing songs in parks, woodlands and gardens across the city. From Kreuzberg to Treptower, Tempelhof to Hasenheide, Berlin has become a refuge for one of the most celebrated and mythologised birds on earth.

The city is the summer home for over one and a half thousand nesting pairs. Nobody\\u2019s quite sure why nightingales have adopted the city so enthusiastically. Maybe it\\u2019s Berlin\\u2019s enlightened policy towards park management which leaves areas of untended scrub and dense bushes providing ground-nesting nightingales with perfect cover.

Whatever the reason, this blossoming of nightingales means that their song has become the soundtrack to countless moments in Berlin\\u2019s residents\\u2019 lives: lovers listening to the nightingale\\u2019s melody in the depths of the night; a childhood memory of illness soothed by hearing the song \\u2013 and the German name Nachtigall \\u2013 for the first time; and a visit to one of the few architectural remnants of Germania, Hitler\\u2019s megalomaniacal plan for a new city on the site of Berlin.

This programme gathers memories of the nightingale\\u2019s lingering, multi-faceted song and the sounds of city evenings to create an audio portrait of Berlin, its people and the bird to whom it\\u2019s given refuge.

We hear too from a group of musicians who seek out nightingales in the city\\u2019s parks to play alongside them. They describe feeling their way into the nightingale\\u2019s song, the call-and-response between bird and human and the sense of each listening to the other. Some even describe themselves as nightingales: they\\u2019ve travelled from far countries to make music in Berlin.

The programme is made in collaboration with Berlin Museum of Natural History\\u2019s Forschungsfall Nachtigall project that asks members of the public to record nightingales and send in their recordings \\u2013 along with stories and memories of the bird which has become a symbol of the city.

With the voices of Sarah Darwin, Korhan Erel, Gaby Hartel, Volker Lankow, Christopher and Erika Lehmpfuhl, Charlotte Neidhardt, Philip Oltermann, Sascha Penshorn, Tina Roeske, David Rothenberg and Cymin Samawatie.

Featuring music from David Rothenberg\\u2019s 'Nightingale Cities' project and 'Berlin B\\xfclb\\xfcl by David Rothenberg and Korhan Erel.

Location recordings in Berlin by Martyna Pozna\\u0144ska and Monika Dorniak.

Producer: Jeremy Grange

Photograph courtesy of Kim Mortega