About Reconnect
Reconnect CIC is a Community Interest Company founded by James Crompton to build bridges between children and nature in an increasingly disconnected world. The project provides immersive outdoor music experiences that connect young people with the natural environment through sound, creativity, exploration, and simple music technology.
At the heart of the project is The Woodland Orchestra, a unique outdoor music programme that combines natural soundscapes, environmental exploration, instrument-making, collaborative music-making, and field recording. Designed to be inclusive, accessible, and engaging for all abilities, the sessions encourage children to reconnect with the outdoors while expressing themselves creatively through music and sound.
Reconnect CIC offers bespoke outdoor musical experiences that can be tailored to different age groups, settings, and needs. Schools and organisations can choose from three core activities, which can either be delivered individually or combined together into a larger Woodland Orchestra experience.
One strand of the programme focuses on sound recording in nature. Using iPads and simple recording apps, children explore outdoor environments capturing the sounds of the natural world around them. Pupils record birdsong, streams, rustling leaves, footsteps, sticks, stones, wind through the trees, and the many hidden textures and rhythms found outdoors. The children also record and sample their own voices and body percussion, learning how everyday sounds can become part of a musical composition. These recordings are then layered together to create original soundscapes, ambient pieces, and collaborative sound collages inspired entirely by the environment around them.
Another part of the experience involves building musical instruments from natural and found materials gathered outdoors. Children experiment with creating drum kits from logs and tree stumps, xylophones from branches of different sizes, natural shakers, rhythm sticks, and other woodland instruments. This hands-on process encourages problem solving, imagination, teamwork, and creativity while helping children discover how music can emerge directly from the landscape itself.
The Woodland Orchestra element brings all participants together in a shared outdoor musical performance. Using the instruments they have created alongside ukuleles and simple percussion instruments commonly found in schools, children work collaboratively to create rhythms, songs, and sound-based performances inspired by nature. The music is intentionally simple, accessible, and fun, allowing every child to participate regardless of previous musical experience. The focus is on listening, playing together, creativity, and enjoyment rather than technical ability. The sessions are designed so that anyone can join in, and teachers themselves often leave feeling inspired to continue similar activities within their own outdoor learning.
Through sound recording, instrument-making, environmental exploration, and collaborative music-making, children are encouraged to slow down, listen carefully, create together, and develop a deeper connection to the natural world around them.
In Surrey, Reconnect CIC works exclusively in partnership with Surrey Outdoor Learning and Development, delivering Woodland Orchestra experiences within high-quality outdoor learning settings. Bookings for Surrey-based sessions should be made through Louise Edwards at SOLD: louise.edwards@surreycc.gov.uk.
Reconnect CIC is also available to work with schools and organisations across the UK. For enquiries and bookings outside of Surrey, please contact James directly: reconnectcollectivecic@outlook.com