Installations & Performances

These sound walks with Chris Watson explore the particular sounds stored along Embleton Bay, which have informed his new Festival commission. The guided walks will begin at Low Newton and end at Dunstanburgh Castle in Northumberland.

The new commission captures the voices and rhythms locked inside the Dunstanburgh Diamonds, from Low Newton to Dunstanburgh Castle. These ancient black dolerite stones are part of the Great Whin Sill, which lies exposed along parts of the coast whilst the surrounding landscape has been eroded around it. Countless tides have shaped the Whin Sill into smooth boulders that murmur, groan and growl with each passing ebb and flow. The new composition extracts the spirit of historic events and memories that have been stored in the stones for generations.

This event is part of their Digging for Sound weekends of new commissions, concerts and walks focusing on the geology, topography and mining legacy of the North East England landscape.

£5, limited capacity
Sat 15 March and Sat 22 March 2014
Sat 15 March 2014, 9am
BUY TICKETS
Sat 22 March 2014, 9am
SOLD OUT

Low Newton Carpark
Meet at car park at
Low Newton-By-The-Sea
Northumberland NE66

PULSE and The University of Glasgow present Chris Watson, who will be performing “Songs from the Silverbank”

Tuesday 11 February 2014, 7.30pm

University of Glasgow Concert Hall

7:30pm Q&A with Mike Harding (including audience questions)
8:30pm Break
8:45pm “Songs from the Silverbank”
9:30 Finish

You can read an article in the Glasgow Herald

soundsoutloud.com

6th November 2013, 13:25 to 17:30, IAS, Palace Green, Durham

A Seminar organised in collaboration between: the School of Applied Social Sciences, the Ustinov Seminar Series and the Institute for Advanced Study (IAS). The SLOW movement promotes a socio-cultural shift towards slowing down the pace of work, life and consumption and providing a counter narrative to processes of globalization that Hale, Held and Young (2013) write about in ‘Gridlock’.

www.dur.ac.uk/whatson/event/?eventno=17337

Two World Premieres from Chris Watson + Hildur Guðnadóttir, and Anna von Hausswolff
19th October 2013, 7:30 – 9:30pm, Lincoln Cathedral

Touch is delighted to be invited back to play live in Lincoln Cathedral by Frequency, after the hugely successful 13th edition of Spire, which took place in the same space, in October 2011. You can purchase tickets here.

Chris Watson (field recordings) and Hildur Guðnadóttir (cello) will be collaborating on a brand new collaborative multi-channel sound work, titled “Sönghellir (The Cave of Song)” – a sound journey from under the waters of Faxafloi, Iceland, alongside some of the largest animals on the planet. Up, onto the lava beach, across the lava fields and reindeer moss to the foot of the snow mountain, Snaefellsnes. The journey continues up and then into the mountain, ending inside Sönghellir, the song cave…

On a clear day in Reykjavik, one can gaze northwest and see the shining Snaefellsjokull glacier, 60 miles away. Though the glacier is nowhere near in size to some of Iceland’s others, it is by far the most mysterious and popular. It rests near lands end on one of Iceland’s most beloved landscapes – the Snaefellsnes Peninsula – and its bright, mysterious beauty seems to embody the entire region. One of the reasons why Icelander’s love the Snaefellsnes Peninsula so much (aside from its enchanting landscape brimming with lava caves, waterfalls, and mineral hot springs) is that it is a veritable heartland of history. Some of the best and most important sagas took place here, and it is said that Christopher Columbus once spent a winter in Ingjaldsholl, where he heard stories of lands to the west.

Anna von Hausswolff, a Swedish singer, pianist and songwriter, will be performing a new score for the organ, titled “Källan”.

The Eternal Chord, an improvisational work from some of the artists present, will close the evening.

Further details at frequency.org.uk
Book tickets for Touch presents… Live in Lincoln Cathedral

Thursday 12 September 2013 – Sunday 23 February 2014

From making childhood recordings of birdsong in his garden, to co-founding electronic pioneers Cabaret Voltaire, and his work as one of the UK’s pre-eminent sound recordists, Sheffield-born Chris Watson has had an enduring fascination with sound.

In this ambitious new exhibition, Chris will transform the Millennium Gallery into an immersive ‘sound map’ of Sheffield, charting its boundaries on the edge of the Peak and travelling its waterways to the bustling heart of the city. By truly hearing the sounds of the city, perhaps for the first time, we hope that visitors will gain a new perspective on Sheffield in 2013.

You can read a feature on Chris & Inside the Circle of Fire in today’s Yorkshire Post and read a press release (pdf) here

There is a feature in The Star you can read here and in The Guardian here

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

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]

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

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

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

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.

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…

A two-day festival celebrating 30 years of Touch, with performances, installations and displays, and a full programme of workshops and masterclasses in design and music, recording, mastering and the digital realm. The full programme is now available to read below or to download.

The Festival Pass entitles you to access all events at this festival and is now onsale here:

Atmospheres 4 – Touch.30 at Beaconsfield is the main UK event in a year-round programme of activities celebrating 30 years of existence.

Atmospheres 4 – Touch.30 at Beaconsfield is a two-day festival with performances, installations and displays, and a full programme of workshops and masterclasses. The Festival will explore all aspects of Touch: the music; the distinctive and influential design and photography; the process of recording and mastering; and the opportunities of the digital realm.

Participation in the event will extend well beyond Touch artists and creative team into the hinterland around the label: academics, industry professionals, other ground breaking music organisations etc.

Atmospheres will be curated by two of Touch’s founders and the current creative team, Mike Harding and Jon Wozencroft, and produced by them with along with Touch’s experienced digital and live production team already responsible this year for events in the UK, Germany, Belgium, USA and elsewhere detailed here

Venue: Beaconsfield, 22 Newport St, Vauxhall, London, SE11 6AY
Dates: 5-6 December 2012

Day One – Wednesday 5th December 2012
Afternoon events, 2pm-6pm:
• 2pm: Jon Wozencroft talks about the history of Touch, “Through the Digital Glass”
• 2:30pm: Denis Blackham (Skye Mastering) and Christian Fennesz on mastering for digital manufacture and the demands of the “Venice” project
• 3pm: Chaired by John Kieffer: Denis Blackham, Jason (Transition Mastering Studios) and Jon Wozencroft on digital and analogue sound, and how this determines listening outcomes
• 4:15pm: Chaired by Tony Myatt (University of Surrey): Mike Harding, Seb Jouan (Aecom Acoustic Design & Arts & Culture) on multi-channel with Hildur Gudnadottir. This session reflects upon hi-audio formats, a specific example, and their future
• Sonic interventions from ELEH/Ryoji Ikeda/Mika Vainio & Panasonic. “When did sound become music?” (Followed by questions)

Screening Situations (upstairs), 6pm-7pm
• Coda-plus 47 (audio by Fennesz & Ryoji Ikeda)
• Liquid Music (audio by Fennesz)

Evening Performances, 8pm-11pm
• Hildur Gudnadottir – Leyfɗu Ljósinu (Beaconsfield version)
• audio intervention by David Toop, a presentation of “Yanomamo Shamanism”, released on ‘Touch Travel’ [T4] in 1984.
• Philip Jeck
• audio intervention by BJNilsen, who plays a new piece recorded outside the School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, London, “The cackle of dogs and laughter of death”.
• Playback of a surround-sound rendition of his Touch.30 piece “Brussels Nord” by Chris Watson (in absentia)
• Fennesz

Day Two – Thursday 6th December 2012
Afternoon events, 2pm-6pm:
• 2pm: Mike Harding introduces Touch’s digital presence on the web with Philip Marshall (websites) & Tim Medcalf (iOS devices) followed by at
• 2:45pm: Paul Wilson & Cheryl Tipp from The British Library on the TouchRadio archive
• 3pm: Jon Wozencroft & Garry Mouat – “Bromides and Spray Mount” – Touch design in the early years
• 3:45pm: Design Seminar by Jon Wozencroft – How Touch has responded to changing formats and download culture
•: 4:30pm Jon Wozencroft & Peter Saville discuss their parallel experience of visual culture, and the movement of graphic design to the art world (Followed by questions)

Screening Situations (upstairs), 6pm-7:15pm
• The Whitstable Symphony (audio by BJNilsen)
• The Suffolk Symphony (audio by Philip Jeck & BJNilsen)

Evening Performances, 8pm-11pm
• Thomas Köner
• followed by an audio intervention by Bruce Gilbert – “Sliding off the World”
• CM von Hausswolff
• Jon Wozencroft introduces Jon Savage’s and his pirate broadcast for Network 21 in 1987
• Biosphere – transfiguring Arnold Schoenberg’s “Verklärte Nacht”

To be allocated: audio interventions by People Like Us | Edwin Pouncey | Heitor Alvelos | Simon Fisher Turner…

In the Bar: Photography by Jon Wozencroft: The Listening Eye

The 14th edition of send + receive will feature performances and works that explore distinct interpretations of natural sound by artists from across Canada and around the globe.

Featuring performances by:

Akio Suzuki (JP)
Tomoko Sauvage (JP/FR)
Nmperign (US)
the Rita (BC)
Angela Forget (MB)
Jeffrey Allport (SK)
Featuring works by:
Chris Watson (UK)
Douglas Quin (US)
Jana Winderen (NO)
Hope Peterson (MB)
Jane Tingley (QC)
Garth Hardy (MB)
Jamie Woollard (MB/QC)
George Brecht (US)
Christian Wolff (US) ‘stones’ performed by the send + receive Temporary Ensemble (MB)

Complete details are available now on our website: www.sendandreceive.org
For press enquiries please contact our Director crys cole

Chris is taking part at the Harrogate International festival

You can find out more here

Nature Disco: Dawn Safari :

For our final session we are so privileged to have coming to Salon North the magic that is super sound recordist Chris Watson. If you have ever heard the sound of an animal putting tooth to flesh in any of the David Attenborough’s series it is our Chris who was there, literally placing his boom deep inside the leopard’s mouth. David Attenborough will work with no-one else, and Chris has built up, over many decades travelling a world class sound archive. If it’s sounds of ice fields groaning as they split apart deep under the ice caps or electrical storm in the Serengeti desert you want, Chris is your go to sound guy. For Salon North Chris will be taking us on select sound safari, playing the sounds of the dawn during our British summertime. From the tip of the Orkneys to the far west of the British Isles, Chris will be playing the sounds of our nation’s dawn in Salon’s very own nature disco.

Sounding City: Public Sound, Kortrijk, Belgium, 28.04.12 – 13.05.12

Opening on the 28th with a presentation of the work of Chris Watson by Mike Harding and a live performance by Jana Winderen.

Chris Watson – installation inspired by “After the Deluge (Na de Zondvloed)” by Roelant Savery @ Broel Museum

Jana Winderen – installation – “The Moat” & live performance

Unfortunately Chris Watson cannot be present for family reasons, so his work will be presented by Mike Harding from Touch.

www.festivalkortrijk.be

May 3rd Touch.30 live at Kingston University
Improvisation and Digital Arts Festival

Market House, Kingston Upon Thames, Surrey UK

Live:

Philip Jeck – www.philipjeck.com
BJNilsen – www.bjnilsen.com
Chris Watson – www.chriswatson.net

1500-1700 Touch Seminar: Mike Harding chairs a panel with the artists
2000-2200 Touch.30 Live

www.idaf.co.uk/

THIS EVENT IS SOLD OUT