Chris Watson is one of the world’s most acclaimed recordists, known for his work with the BBC and David Attenborough, as well as his many releases on Touch. Izabela Dłużyk, sightless from birth, is known especially for recordings made in Białowieża Forest, Europe’s last primaeval forest. Together, Chris and Izabela recorded in the forest last spring to create a new work called Białowieża. This is a sonic document of not only one of Poland’s most beautiful regions, but in recent years one of its most brutal, the site of migrant deaths along the crossing from Belarus into the EU. This discussion, moderated by Polish sound artist and musicologist Iza Smelczyńska, will explore the practical and ethical dimensions of a sound recordist’s work and the individual artistic philosophies involved in creating Białowieża.
Commissioned by TIMES* – the Independent Movement for Electronic Scenes.