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A Guide to Garden Wildlife | BBC Radio 4 8th July 2013

July 4, 2013 » Permalink: A Guide to Garden Wildlife | BBC Radio 4 8th July 2013

Brett Westwood presents a practical, informative and entertaining guide to help you identify the birds in your garden at this time of year.

Programme link

Monday 09.30am starting Monday 8 July
5 x 14mins

Brett Westwood is joined by naturalist Phil Gates in this informative and entertaining guide to some of our common garden wildlife. Recorded near Bristol, each programme focuses on a different garden habitat; log piles, ponds, hedgerows, trees and shrubs and finally stones. The series offers helpful advice on the appearance, behaviour and sounds of some of the typical species you’re likely to find, their value in the garden, and how to encourage them into your own garden.

The series features wildlife sound recordings by Chris Watson. Producer: Sarah Blunt

The Daily Telegraph (UK):

It’s a jungle out there! Among the bedding plants and hardy perennials of the domestic garden there seethes a busy host of little creatures. Presenter Brett Westwood and naturalist Phil Gates, accompanied by the peerless wildlife sound recordist Chris Watson, venture into a garden near Bristol to meet some of them. Who knew that the humble woodlouse or the froghopper larva (that little green thing that lives within the bubbles of cuckoo spit) could be so engaging? The soundtrack of garden birds is exquisite, and there’s a tremendous predatory flourish at the end. [Jane Shilling]

Jerwood Open Forest

July 3, 2013 » Permalink: Jerwood Open Forest

From an exceptional response of strong and diverse proposals for the inaugural Jerwood Open Forest, five projects have been selected for a six-month research and development period.

Juan delGado, Adam James, Amanda Loomes, a project by Chris Watson, collaborating with producer Iain Pate, and artist duo Semiconductor (Ruth Jarman and Joe Gerhardt) will each receive a £2,000 research and development fee and be supported by Jerwood Visual Arts and Forestry Commission England to expand on the concept of their proposal and explore potential sites through this phase.

The research process will culminate in a curated exhibition at Jerwood Visual Arts, London in January 2014. One project will then be selected by the panel of leading practitioners and project partners to receive a £30,000 commissioning budget to realise their proposal.

Further information and updates of the research and development period will be available on this website soon.

For full information: www.jerwoodvisualarts.org

In St Cuthbert’s Time – The Sounds of Lindisfarne and the Gospels

May 15, 2013 » Permalink: In St Cuthbert’s Time – The Sounds of Lindisfarne and the Gospels

6th July 2013 – 30 September
10am – 4pm daily, Holy Cross Chapel, Durham Cathedral

Throughout human history artists have been influenced by their surroundings and the sounds of the landscape they inhabit.

When Eadfrith, the Bishop of Lindisfarne, was writing and illustrating the Lindisfarne Gospels on that island during the late 7th Century and early 8th Century he would have been immersed in the seasonal sounds around the island.

For ‘In St Cuthbert’s Time’, a collaboration with Durham University’s Institute of Advanced Study, and other Durham-based researchers, artist Chris Watson has created a sound installation that reflects the acoustic landscape of that island during the time that the Lindisfarne Gospels were being considered, written and illustrated.

Durham Cathedral’s Holy Cross Chapel provides an inspiring location for quiet reflection and meditation on the sounds St Cuthbert and the other monks would have experienced for themselves.

The installation will run continuously on a loop lasting around forty to fifty minutes and reflect the seasonal changes of a year out on the island. It will be played at a very discrete level as the intention is to create an atmosphere within the Chapel as if the Chapel was on the island and the natural sounds of that place were percolating inside through the two large unglazed windows. The replay level and spatial representation of the work is key to its success.

Visitors will be able to engage in conversation without having to raise their voices, as the sounds will be audible simply at the level they would be experienced in reality. Those who choose to listen will be able to engage with the work in a way which encourages a creative thought process regarding the spirit and sense of place.

The Installation will run from 06 July 2013 – to 30 September 2013, daily between 10am and 4pm.

You can read about it in the Newcastle Journal here, and Living North here.
There is also out now a new album released on Touch to coincide with this event.

The CD is now available to order

[Photo by Maggie Watson]

Sound Exhibition at The Hole Gallery | Prague, May 2013

May 3, 2013 » Permalink: Sound Exhibition at The Hole Gallery | Prague, May 2013

May 6-20, 2013

More info can be found here

Chris Watson: Monte Bondone, Settembre
2013, 2 min 28 sec
Opening: May 6, 6pm

Galerie Díra / The Hole Gallery, Školská 28, Prague 1

Galerie Díra is sound art and site specific gallery in the backyard of no. 28 of Školská street, Prague.

galeriedira.cz

David Attenborough to Launch Tweet of The Day on BBC Radio 4

April 24, 2013 » Permalink: David Attenborough to Launch Tweet of The Day on BBC Radio 4

tweet

On 6 May David Attenborough will launch Tweet Of The Day, Radio 4’s new year-long celebration of the wonder and poetry of birdsong. Just before the Today programme, early risers will be treated to a different call or song of a British species, followed by a fascinating story of ornithology specific to the tweet in question.

In Britain there are now 596 species on the official bird list, of which 286 are recorded as rare. The BBC will be collaborating with brilliant wildlife sound recordists such as Chris Watson, Geoff Sample and Gary Moore to track down the songs of some of these much-loved birds, from the nightingale to the swift, the greenfinch to the garden warbler. The series will begin with the cuckoo – the song of the male is familiar to many, but how many of us can say that we have seen the bird itself?

www.bbc.co.uk/mediacentre
and
www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/

Viv Albertine (The Slits) on El Tren Fantasma

April 19, 2013 » Permalink: Viv Albertine (The Slits) on El Tren Fantasma

“Technically it’s so beautiful; it’s beautifully recorded. I think he does what an artist should do, which is take something every day and make you hear it or see it differently. I could listen to this anytime of day or night, I could listen to it heartbroken or grieving… so beautiful, so inspiring. It paints pictures in your head and yet it’s barely music. This record can make you see beauty in the everyday.”

Read the full article here

EP The Signal Man’s Mix

The Egg Show | Channel 4 31st March – 1st April 2013

March 28, 2013 » Permalink: The Egg Show | Channel 4 31st March – 1st April 2013

Easter Eggs Live
60 mins
Sunday 31 March

Channel 4

The first of the two main programmes as Mark Evans explores the weird, wonderful world of eggs. The eggs are due to hatch. Jimmy Doherty examines bugs, and Lucy Cooke investigates frogs.

Easter Eggs Live
60 mins
Monday 1 April

The second of the two main programmes exploring the wonderful and often weird world of eggs, from clown fish to emus. Mark Evans updates viewers on the animals that have hatched overnight.

The Listeners | BBC Radio 4 February 2013

February 7, 2013 » Permalink: The Listeners | BBC Radio 4 February 2013

BBC Radio 4, Tue 19 & 26 Feb at 11.02am
(repeated Thur 21 and 28 at 21.02)

Presenter Patrick Ayree
Producer Sarah Blunt

“I suppose for me listening is the most important thing I can do,” says acoustic biologist Katy Payne in this series. “ I just wish we were as good listeners as elephants are”.
In this two-part series, we discover that listening is about much more than just hearing.as we meet individuals whose professional lives are spent listening and interpreting the sounds they hear. The first programme focuses on sounds within the human hearing range and the second programme, explores ultrasound and infrasound; sounds above and below the human hearing range.

In the first programme we hear from Julie Ryan a volunteer with the International Rescue Corps, an organisation which specialises in urban search and rescue, Cardiac surgeon Jonathan Pitts Crick, piano tuner Davis Powell, wildlife sound recordist Chris Watson and acoustic biologist Katy Payne

In the second programme we hear from acoustic biologist Katy Payne, Brian Baptie, a seismologist with the British Geological Survey, astrophysicist Tim O’Brien, wildlife sound recordist Chris Watson and bat ecologist John Altringham.

listeners

The Echoes of Benjamin Britten’s ‘Composing Walks’

January 31, 2013 » Permalink: The Echoes of Benjamin Britten’s ‘Composing Walks’

Aldeburgh Music’s PLACE weekend

Chris retraces the steps of Benjamin Britten and tunes into the Suffolk countryside which inspired the composer.

Chris Watson talks to Pascal Wyse, The Guardian 31st January 2013: The echoes of Benjamin Britten’s ‘composing walks’

In Port Magazine, the wildlife specialist shares anecdotes from his career, and his latest commission in Suffolk (see above).

In The Financial Times: A walk with the FT: In Britten’s footsteps

BBC news

The Liminal write about “Chris Watson – In Britten’s Footsteps” installation

The Guardian reviewed the piece on 5th February:

Gamophone Magazine review can be read here

Recordings of a Desert Waterhole | Namibia December 2012

January 31, 2013 » Permalink: Recordings of a Desert Waterhole | Namibia December 2012

“At 1800h local time I fixed a Sennheiser MKH 8040/30 middle and side rig against a sun bleached log by the edge of a small muddy pool. This was the only surface water I could find on the floor of a steep sided valley formed by the ephemeral river Kuiseb on the western fringe of the Namib desert in Namibia, southwest Africa.”

Listen on the Wildlife Sound Recording Society blog

A walk with the FT: In Britten’s footsteps

January 26, 2013 » Permalink: A walk with the FT: In Britten’s footsteps

The Financial Times:

Sound recordist Chris Watson tunes into the Suffolk soundscape that inspired the composer

A walk with the FT: In Britten’s footsteps

One moment we are listening to widgeon ducks whistling from the wetlands to our right. The next we are stopped in our tracks by a wren sounding the alarm at our approach. The sound recordist Chris Watson and I are a couple of miles north of the Suffolk seaside town of Aldeburgh, and already the quietness of our rural surroundings has revealed all sorts of sounds. “Silence is oppressive but quietness isn’t,” says Watson. “Silence doesn’t exist in the natural world.” Next Friday, Watson’sIn Britten’s Footsteps premieres as part of Aldeburgh Music’s year-long Britten Centenary celebrations. The piece is a season-by-season introduction to the habitats familiar to Benjamin Britten, reprising the sounds that surrounded him on his “composing walks”, and serving as an aural route-map today. [Andrew Clark]

Chris Watson featured in new book about field recording

January 24, 2013 » Permalink: Chris Watson featured in new book about field recording

Alexander Galand
FIELD RECORDING
The use of sound world in 100 albums
(Belgium, 2012)

http://atheles.org/lemotetlereste/formes/fieldrecording/index.html

“Le field recording, ou enregistrement de terrain, est une pratique apparue logiquement à la fin du xixe siècle avec l’invention de systèmes d’enregistrement, de plus en plus portables. Peu à peu, le studio perd de sa fatalité et l’homme peut partir par les chemins pour capter quantité de musiques et de sons. Les premiers à se lancer sont les ethnomusicologues et les audio-naturalistes. Les uns sont en quête des musiques de divers peuples de la terre, vivant souvent loin des grandes villes et de leurs facilités logistiques. Les autres souhaitent quant à eux conserver la trace des sons de la nature.”

Chris Watson in Aldeburgh | 1st February 2013

January 23, 2013 » Permalink: Chris Watson in Aldeburgh | 1st February 2013

PLACE WEEKEND: Roots – Journeying Home

The third edition of our annual winter weekend exploration into the culture and meanings of place looks at the nature and resonance of home. It draws its inspiration from the life and travels of Benjamin Britten, and its title from an astute observation he made in 1951 about the importance of Suffolk to his life and creativity.

Over the weekend (see below), in the company of award-winning writers, thinkers, artists, musicians and film-makers, Roots will explore what home means in an age of globalization, from considerations of domestic architecture to the psychology of unsettlement, and from the lure of the local to our place in the cosmos.

As always, the approaches will be various – readings, screenings, music, performance, discussion, walks and installation – and we’re especially pleased to announce a new commission by internationally acclaimed sound artist Chris Watson, In Britten’s Footsteps, responding directly to the Aldeburgh landscape, and a presentation by conductor and writer Paul Kildea, the author of an important new Britten biography.

PLACE is curated by Gareth Evans in association with Aldeburgh Music.

Join us next week at Aldeburgh Music’s cross-arts PLACE weekend. More info and tickets here, hope to see you there http://www.brittenaldeburgh.co.uk/whats-on/event/place-weekend-roots-journeying-home

Twitter:
Join us at @aldeburghmusic next week for the cross-arts PLACE weekend. http://www.brittenaldeburgh.co.uk/whats-on/event/place-weekend-roots-journeying-home #BrittenLivesHere

and you can read a feature in The Quietus here

Live in Geneva | 11th January 2013

January 7, 2013 » Permalink: Live in Geneva | 11th January 2013

http://presenceselectroniques.ch

Il présentera à Genève en première mondiale Blue Notes, une création unique inspirée de l’océan, qui en traduira le rythme et la musique avec des sons enregistrés pour la plupart en milieu subaquatique. Tout un art !

He will present in Geneva the world premiere of Blue Notes, a unique design inspired by the ocean, which results in the rhythm and music with sounds recorded mostly in an underwater environment.

A Guide to Mountain and Moorland Birds | BBC Radio 4 January 2013

December 10, 2012 » Permalink: A Guide to Mountain and Moorland Birds | BBC Radio 4 January 2013

RTGuide

BBC Radio 4, Mon – Fri, 7-11 January, 13.45-14.00

Brett Westwood in conversation with Stephen Moss
Wildlife sound recordist Chris Watson, Producer Sarah Blunt

Which bird sounds like a coffee percolator and moves like a clockwork mouse? Well, the answer can be found in the first of a new series of Radio Guides to our commonest upland birds. Surrounded by the go-back-back-back calls of Red Grouse, Brett Westwood joins keen bird watcher Stephen Moss on the magnificent rolling hills of the Long Mynd in Shropshire. With the help of recordings by wildlife sound recordist Chris Watson, they offer a practical and entertaining guide to the birds which you’re most likely to see and hear on heather moors in Upland Britain.

This series complements five previous series; A Guide to Garden Birds, A Guide Woodland Birds, A Guide to Water Birds, A Guide to Coastal Birds and A Guide to Farmland Birds and is aimed at both the complete novice as well as those who are eager to learn more about our upland visitors and residents.

Chapel of Skins | BBC Radio 4 22nd January 2013

December 10, 2012 » Permalink: Chapel of Skins | BBC Radio 4 22nd January 2013

Afternoon Drama : Chapel of Skins
BBC Radio 4, Tue 22 January 2013, 14.15

Recorded high up in the Shropshire hills of the Welsh Marches, and inspired by a living landscape and its history, Chapel of Skins is a fictional story about a ghostly meeting of ways, written and narrated by Paul Evans with wildlife sound recordings by Chris Watson.

CAST:
Phone Box: Paul Evans
Trebrodier: Liza Sadovy
Anchor: Ben Crowe
Quabbs: Alex Tregear

Wildlife sound recordist: Chris Watson
Director / Producer: Sarah Blunt

Chris Watson Remix for The Horrors

December 4, 2012 » Permalink: Chris Watson Remix for The Horrors

Track title: Dive In (The Pressure Ridges)

The boxed set is available to pre-order now, but is also available to buy digitally right away from all services.

The Horrors

It’s possible to listen to the album on Spotify and also using the widget they built: widgets.xlrecordings.com/higher/

Celebrating 90 Years of Radio Broadcasting…

November 17, 2012 » Permalink: Celebrating 90 Years of Radio Broadcasting…

Celebrating 90 years of BBC radio – short features marking some memorable radio moments. Here is Chris’s selection:

1924: The Cello and The Nightingale
Duration: 01:34

Cellist Beatrice Harrison duets with nightingales in a Surrey garden – or does she? Sound recordist Chris Watson investigates.

Robert Macfarlane & Chris Watson – The Sea Road

November 15, 2012 » Permalink: Robert Macfarlane & Chris Watson – The Sea Road

thesearoadweb

Robert Macfarlane & Chris Watson: The Sea Road (17.32) Recorded live at Port Eliot festival, July 2012

b/w Granite (7.05) (Watson) /Stormbeach (7.25)(Watson)
Rivertones 2. A 12” single, released 19th November 2012

Sold Out

Undoubtedly the highlight’s of Caught by the River’s summer was an utterly unique collaboration between two of Britain’s most forward-thinking adventurers, author Robert Macfarlane and sound recordist Chris Watson. They had been plotting something special for a few months, a performance piece based on Robert’s book The Old Ways that would blend archive audio, field recordings and spoken word. We put it on stage at our fifth birthday party at the QEH in May and then again at Port Eliot Festival. Robert read while Chris created a bespoke soundbed for the words. The result was eerie, trippy, uplifting, effortless and fantastic. Cut to a couple of months after Port Eliot. Chris Watson sends a jaw-dropping recording of the Port Eliot performance at the exact point we’re scratching our heads about what to put on the next Rivertones release…

Chris Watson | BJNilsen – Storm now available as FLAC download

November 14, 2012 » Permalink: Chris Watson | BJNilsen – Storm now available as FLAC download

Now available in the TouchShop

3 Tracks – 50:09

Chris Watson writes:

“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.” Newcastle upon Tyne August 2006