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Chris Watson in Songlines | October 2022

October 11, 2022 » Permalink: Chris Watson in Songlines | October 2022

www.songlines.co.uk/magazine

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Information

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Twitter: @chrisrwatson
Biography

Watson was a founding member of the influential Sheffield based experimental music group Cabaret Voltaire during the late 1970’s and early 1980’s. Since then he has developed a particular and passionate interest in recording the sounds of animals, habitats and atmospheres from around the world.

As a freelance composer and sound recordist Watson specialises in creating spatial sound installations which feature a strong sense and spirit of place.

In 2013 Watson received a Paul Hamlyn Composers Award.

In 2014 Watson was appointed as the Handel Music Fellow at the Foundling Museum in London.

For his film sound work Watson has won BAFTA awards for Best Factual Sound in 1998, 2012 and 2025 for ‘The Life of Birds’,‘Frozen Planet’ and ‘The Secret World of Sound with David Attenborough’.

Watson was awarded an Honorary Doctor of Technology by the University of the West of England (2006), Honorary Doctor by the University of The Arts London (2011), Honorary Doctor of Arts by Leeds Beckett University (2018) and Doctor of Music (honoris causa) by the University of Sheffield (2019)

His installations have been commissioned by international galleries and festivals such as; Sheffield Millennium Gallery, Opera North in Leeds, The National Gallery, London, The Royal Opera House, London, The Louvre in Paris, the Aichi Triennial in Japan and Dark MoFo in Tasmania.
Gallery

Here you can access images of Chris Watson. Click on images for high resolution version & please always credit author when used.
CD & Digital Releases (available in Bandcamp):

Chris Watson in Bandcamp
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
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:
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
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