Chris Watson

A former & founding member of Cabaret Voltaire and The Hafler Trio, Chris Watson is currently a sound recordist specializing in a variety of nature-related subjects. He has worked on numerous TV and radio documentaries for BBC, as well as other projects. In addition, he has also released a number of solo and collaborative CDs, generally on the Touch label, which are derived from his location recordings.



Stepping Into The Dark (1996)

1
Low Pressure Glen Cannich, Inverness-shire, Scotland
(57.21°N 04.57°W) 0810h 6 October 1994
2
Embleton Rookery Embleton, Northumberland, England
(55.30°N 01.38°W) 0600h 7 May 1983
3
The Crossroads Kiedler Forest, Northumberland, England
(55.09°N 02.27°W) 0620h 27 March 1994
4
River Mara At Dawn River Mara, Maasai Mara, Kenya
(01.25°S 35.07°E) 0615h 16 September 1994
5
River Mara At Night
6
A Passing View Los Olivitos, Lake Maracaibo, Venezuela
(10.46°N 71.02°W) 2350h 3 April 1991
7
Bosque Seco Santa Rosa National Park, Costa Rica
(10.49°N 85.39°W) 0540h 6 April 1995
8
Sunsets Breachacha, Island of Coll, Scotland
(56.36°N 06.37°W) 2230h 16 May 1994
9
The Blue Men Of The Minch Moray Firth, Scotland
(57.30°N 04.15°W) 1400h 30 July 1995
10
High Pressure Ravenstonedale, Cumbria, England
(54.25°N 02.24°W) 0550h 25 February 1994
11
Gahlitzerstrom Ummanz, Rügen Islands, Germany
(54.32°N 13.11°E) 1740h 5 October 1993
12
The Forest Path Meallan na Ceardaich, Glen Affric, Scotland
(57.19°N 04.52°W) 0625h 7 October 1994

Comes with a a 24-page booklet filled with photography and text.
Edited on 19 August 1995
The tracks are the atmospheres of "special places", recorded with the use of camouflaged microphones.




Outside The Circle Of Fire (1998)
1 Waiting 1:53
2 Breathing In Cold Air 0:15
3 Horse Of The Woods 5:57
4 Song 0:16
5 At Dusk 5:50
6 Winter Flags 3:51
7 Machine Noise 1:16
8 Canopy 4:55
9 Song 0:54
10 Across The Iris Beds 2:32
11 Threat 0:10
12 Cracking Viscera 3:23
13 Deep Roar 0:28
14 Unknown Forest 1:36
15 Out Of Our Sight 2:59
16 Leaf Litter 0:51
17 Souls Of Dead Children 3:26
18 Forest Fire 0:21
19 Sleeping In Warm Air 4:54
20 Rattle Of Wood 1:42
21 Moonlit Fog 3:02
22 Contacts 0:31

The booklet contains extensive notes on the locations and details of the recordings, as well as information about the recording equipment and techniques used.




Star Switch On (2002)

1 Mika Vainio - Outside The Circle Of Fire 5:06
2 Philip Jeck - Capriole 4:52
3 Hazard - Debugged 4:00
4 Chris Watson - Cassarina 2:42
5 Fennesz - Pannonique 3:11
6 AER - Goat Behaviour 5:57
7a Biosphere - Night & Dawn 5:42
7b Chris Watson - Wolves 1:18

Sleeve: "The artists were commissioned to use the wildlife recordings of Chris Watson published on Stepping Into The Dark and Outside The Circle Of Fire as source material."

Track 7: Chris Watson's "Wolves" begins 30 seconds after the end of Biosphere's "Night & Dawn".


Night Time Is The Right Time
BBC Radio 4 Programme 2002





Beginning inside the mother’s womb, with the very first sounds we hear, this series is an evocative, absorbing and often surprising journey through a world of rhythms, noise and silence, in search of a small slice of tranquillity.

Tuesdays 11.00-11.30am 8 & 15 July 2003
BBC Radio 4




Weather Report (2003)
The weather has created and shaped all our habitats. Clearly it also has a profound and dynamic effect upon our lives and that of other animals. The three locations featured here all have moods and characters which are made tangible by the elements, and these periodic events are represented within by a form of time compression.


1 Ol-Olool-O (18:06)
A fourteen hour drama in Kenya's Masai Mara from 0500h - 1900h on Thursday 17th October 2002.

2 The Lapaich (18:06)
The music of a Scottish highland glen through autumn and into winter during the four months of September to December.

3 Vatnajökull (18:00)
The 10,000 year climatic journey of ice formed deep within this Icelandic glacier and its lingering flow into the Norwegian Sea.


K.K. Null _ Chris Watson _ Z'EV

Number One (2005)

1 Invocation - Kami, (The Celestial) Jupiter Sight Wood East Spring Dawn 8:20
dawn in acacia woodland. Rapid light and temperature changes.

2 Introduction - Man, (The Warrior) Mars Speech Fire South Summer Morning 9:44
vultures down on an animal carcass in the short grass plains. The intense activity of a feeding battle resolving into the song of a single sooty chat - the fire of midday.

3 Development - Woman, (The Balance) Saturn Taste Earth Center Late Summer Noon 12:03
elephant herd led by a powerful matriarch, grazing on the edge of a marsh… Gazelles and zebra swish through the long grass… Contact rumbles from the herd females.

4 Climax - Madness, (The Trickster / Fool) Venus Smell Metal Autumn Dusk / Sunset 9:40
the on-coming storm; wind rush and the deep smell of change. Low infrasonic thrum. Disorientation and confusion.

5 Conclusion - Demon, (The Super-Natural) Mercury Hearing Water North Winter Twilight 8:28
the amphibian chorus, enveloping yet impossible to locate. Rhythmic dusk and rapid darkness.

Traditional Noh correspondences for their 5 part cycle of plays.

Kazuyuki Kishino: electronics & electro-percussion produced January 2004.
Chris Watson: location sounds recorded in East Africa.
Z'ev: 25 binary-acoustic files produced January 2004.
Edits, assembling and mixes produced 20-24 March 2004.



The Galapagos Islands - An Audio Diary (2005)

"Recorded in April 2005 on The Galapagos Islands, 1000km off the west coast of Ecuador... During March this year Chris Watson was out in the Galapagos Islands recording for a forthcoming tv film series. In particular Chris made a series of recordings throughout the unique and highly specialised Galapagos habitats; from the mist shrouded Miconia zone at the higher altitudes of Santa Cruz down to the dense cactus and thorn scrub bordering the coast on smaller uninhabited islands. This trip was also the first opportunity for Chris to try out location surround sound recording both on land and then underwater, exploring the sonic potential below the surface of the Pacific Ocean with a four channel hydrophone array."



Holystone (2006)

Holystone Forest, Northumberland, England
Saturday 4th March 2006
Chris Watson & Jana Winderen with Mike Harding

More Info



Alec Finlay And Chris Watson

Siren (2006)

1 Siren 14:28

A field recording on 22 August 2005 of a sung performance of Tim Buckley's Song To The Siren, in a North Sea harbour. Edition of 1000 copies in oversized card wallet, with 9 page foldout booklet featuring texts by Finlay, Powell and Watson.
Poetic composition by Alec Finlay, from written correspondence by Chris Watson, Alex Finlay, Maria Jardardottir and Clive Powell, and transcribed interviews of video footage by Ben Ponton.
siren is published in the Bookscapes series by Platform Projects / Morning Star in association with Amino.

Chris Watson ¬ BJ Nilsen

Storm (2006)

1 Chris Watson - No Man's Land 15:51
Recorded during the months of October & November from 2000 to 2005 on the North East coast of England and Scotland.

Microphones: Sennheiser 2 x MKH 110's binaural pair, MKH 60/30 M&S rig, DPA 2 x 4060's spaced omnis. Recorders: Nagra IV-S, Nagra PII and Sound Devices 744T. Edited and mixed in Boston, July 2006.

2 BJ Nilsen & Chris Watson - SIGWX 18:50
Mixed in Boston and Stockholm, June & July 2006.

3 BJ Nilsen - Austrvegr 15:28
Edited and mixed in Stockholm, 2006.

During December 2000 several significant storm fronts developed across the North Sea and Scandinavia.

Benny remarked to me that he had recorded some of these on the Baltic coast and proposed a collaborative CD project based around our mutual interests in the rhythms and music created when the elements combine over land and out to sea.

We spent the next few years gathering recordings on our respective coastlines and islands during the very active weather windows during the autumnal equinox and winter solstice. This was focused around our following one particular cyclonic system, which veers over Snipe Point on Lindisfarne to the Isle of May in the Firth of Forth, and finally descends upon Öland and Gotland where Benny listened in with a favourite pair of Sennheiser omnidirectional microphones.
Chris Watson, Newcastle upon Tyne, August 2006 (Cover text)



Cima Verde (2008)

1 Soffi Di Vento 1:34
2 Cima Verde 3:27
3 Bucaneve 10:57
4 Aguane 6:48
5 Scanuppia 9:05
6 Le Crone 10:34
7 Valle Dei Venti 9:05




Pestival
7:30 pm 6th September 2009

Chris Watson curates... Cross Pollination - An Evening of Experimental Insect Music

01 intro by Chris Watson (04:20)
02 Bee Symphony (21:39)
Mike Harding: bee recordings
Chris Watson: bee recordings/editing & composition of recordings
Marcus Davidson: vocal composition
03 Philip Jeck (41:08)
04 intro by Atau Tanaka (11:32)
05 Maria Jardardottir (19:23)
Chris Watson: recordings of Japanese bell crickets/processing & composition of recordings

total 98:02

Part 1

Part 2


TouchRadio

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