Chris Watson
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Caught by the River | Durham 1st November 2009

October 22, 2009 » Permalink: Caught by the River | Durham 1st November 2009

durham

← Chris Watson, Constable & The National Gallery | 30th October 2009
The Garden | BBC Radio 4 November 2009 →
  • Information

    NB: This is not a contact email address, so please don't put messages in the body of the email. Thank you.

    Twitter: @chrisrwatson

  • Biography

    Chris Watson is one of the world's leading recorders of wildlife and natural phenomena, and for Touch he edits his field recordings into a filmic narrative. For example. the unearthly groaning of ice in an Icelandic glacier is a classic example of, in Watson's words, putting a microphone where you can't put your ears. He was born in Sheffield where he attended Rowlinson School and Stannington College (now part of Sheffield College). In 1971 he was a founding member of the influential Sheffield-based experimental music group Cabaret Voltaire. His sound recording career began in 1981 when he joined Tyne Tees Television. Since then he has developed a particular and passionate interest in recording the wildlife sounds of animals, habitats and atmospheres from around the world. As a freelance recordist for film, tv & radio, Chris Watson specialises in natural history and documentary location sound together with track assembly and sound design in post production.
  • Gallery

    Here you can access images of Chris Watson. Click on images for high resolution version & please always credit author when used.

  • A Life in Sound

    Here you can find a very helpful selection of radio progammes and soundscapes for BBC Radio 4 featuring sound recordist Chris Watson.

    A Life in Sound

  • Bandcamp (available digital):

    Various releases and other archives are available on Chris's bandcamp site

  • Releases (available in TouchShop):

    Chris Watson in TouchShop
  • El Tren Fantasma

    CD - 10 tracks - 65 minutes

    "Take the ghost train from Los Mochis to Veracruz and travel cross country, coast to coast, Pacific to Atlantic. Ride the rhythm of the rails on board the Ferrocarriles Nacionales de México (FNM) and the music of a journey that has now passed into history."

    Track listing:
    01: La Anunciante
    02: Los Mochis
    03: Sierra Tarahumara
    04: El Divisadero
    05: Crucero La Joya
    06: Chihuahua
    07: Aguascalientes
    08: Mexico D.F.
    09: El Tajin; El dia y La noche
    10: Veracruz

    Artwork: Jon Wozencroft
    Mastered by Denis Blackham

  • You can listen to ‘Veracruz’ here:

    http://chriswatson.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/5/veracruz.mp3
  • El Tren Fantasma – The Signal Man’s Mix

    12" Vinyl - 2 tracks

    Track listing:
    Side A
    1. El Divisadero - The Telegraph 7:56

    Side B
    2. Veracruz - The Tunnel 7:54

    Cut by Jason @ Transition
    Artwork & Design by Jon Wozencroft

  • Oceanus pacificus

    7" vinyl - 2 tracks

    Track listing:

    1. 3m

    2. 10m

    Locked grooves on both sides...

    The voices and rhythms of the Humboldt current around the Galapagos Islands recorded April 2006 using a pair of Dolphin Ear Pro Hydrophones onto a NAGRA ARES-Pll digital audio recorder.

  • Weather Report

    CD - 3 Tracks - 54:02

    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.

    Track listing:

    1. Ol-Olool-O -18' 00"
    A fourteen hour drama in Kenya's Masai Mara from 0500h - 1900h on Thursday 17th Oct. 2002

    2. The Lapaich -18' 00"
    The music of a Scottish highland glen through autumn and into winter during the four months of September to December

    3. Vatnajokull -18' 00"
    The 10,000 year climatic journey of ice formed deep within this Icelandic glacier and it's lingering flow into the Norwegian Sea.

  • Listen to an extract from ‘Vatnajokull’ here

    http://chriswatson.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/5/Vatnajökull.mp3
  • Outside the Circle of Fire

    CD - 22 Tracks

    The purr of a leopard close up against a baobab tree, waiting. Whales surfacing, breathing in cold air. Coll starling imitate the noise of farm machinery from the hollow ring of a ruined bothy. The rattle of wood over a black stream... Chris Watson's second CD is a dramatic contrast to the spacious atmospheres of "Stepping into the Dark" (Touch TO:27, 1996). Featuring 22 close-up recordings of animals, birds and insect life, "Outside the Circle of Fire" enlarges our awareness of the sound universe, intimate with voices from the past. There is an intensity here that television pictures cannot conjure.

  • You can listen to ‘Deathwatch Beetles’ here

    http://chriswatson.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/5/Deathwatch-Beatles.mp3
  • Wildeye Field Recording Trips & Courses

    Chris leads several trips a year in different parts of the world... these trips get fully booked very quickly, so we advise you to sign up to the Wildeye newsletter on their website
  • Publishing & Licensing

    Chris Watson is a member of PRS and is published by Touch Music