http://www.chriswatson.net/ Chris Watson is a sound recordist specialising in natural history. His work as a wildlife sound recordist includes both work for film and television documentaries, and experimental musical projects. en Copyright 2012 Thu, 02 Feb 2012 10:51:20 +0000 http://www.sixapart.com/movabletype/ http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss here Inside Out is a regional magazine with Chris Jackson. We follow Darlington football club's battle to survive, and meet the man who put the sound to David Attenborough's Frozen Planet. This programme is available to view until 8pm February 6th 2012 www.bbc.co.uk/chrisjackson]]> http://www.chriswatson.net/inside_out_bbc_tv_interview.html http://www.chriswatson.net/inside_out_bbc_tv_interview.html left Thu, 02 Feb 2012 10:51:20 +0000 On the nature of things]]> http://www.chriswatson.net/alder_hey.html http://www.chriswatson.net/alder_hey.html left Wed, 18 Jan 2012 10:11:37 +0000 www.rts.org.uk/netb. The event is free, but registration is essential through our Eventbrite booking service.]]> http://www.chriswatson.net/rts_north_east_the_border_centre_12th_january_2012.html http://www.chriswatson.net/rts_north_east_the_border_centre_12th_january_2012.html left Thu, 05 Jan 2012 12:13:47 +0000 To Be Published 6th February 2012 by Routledge – 146 pages This book explores the idea of the poetic in radio and sound as well as the concept of pure sound as poetry, both historically and within a contemporary perspective, examining examples of makers and works internationally.]]> http://www.chriswatson.net/the_poetry_of_radio_the_colour_of_sound.html http://www.chriswatson.net/the_poetry_of_radio_the_colour_of_sound.html left Tue, 27 Dec 2011 11:48:33 +0000 Related events Fri 27 January 7.30 – 9.30pm Chris Watson - Quarantine: Founder member of influential Sheffield based music group Cabaret Voltaire, Chris Watson is one of the world’s leading recorders of wildlife and natural phenomena. Here Watson presents the UK premiere of new album El Tren Fantasma and a live performance of his sound score for Quarantine, a video work by Gina Czarnecki. Free but booking required]]> http://www.chriswatson.net/chris_watson_at_bluecoats_liverpool_27th_january_2012.html http://www.chriswatson.net/chris_watson_at_bluecoats_liverpool_27th_january_2012.html left Tue, 27 Dec 2011 09:23:13 +0000 sound quiz for Springwatch (BBC2 tonight at 7pm). Answers tonight!]]> http://www.chriswatson.net/chris_watson_sound_quiz_on_springwatch_bbc2_27th_december.html http://www.chriswatson.net/chris_watson_sound_quiz_on_springwatch_bbc2_27th_december.html left Mon, 26 Dec 2011 11:41:34 +0000 here]]> http://www.chriswatson.net/stimulus_respond.html http://www.chriswatson.net/stimulus_respond.html left Tue, 13 Dec 2011 10:42:27 +0000 here. NATURE: The Water Boatman’s Song BBC Radio 4, Tue 10 Jan 11.02, rpt Thur 12 Jan 21.02 Writer Paul Evans accompanies sound recordist Tom Lawrence on a journey in sound across Pollardstown Fen to hear the extraordinary sounds of an underwater orchestra of aquatic insects. Additional sound recordings: Chris Watson, Producer Sarah Blunt NATURE: The Ghost Roost BBC Radio 4, Tue 17 Jan 11.02, rpt Thur 19 Jan 21.02 More than ten years ago, sound recordists Chris Watson and Thor McIntyre-Burnie recorded the sounds of tens of thousands of starlings when they came into roost for the night in the derelict remains of the concert hall on the West Pier in Brighton. Today the West Pier no longer exists, having been destroyed by storms and fire, what remains are the sounds of a Ghost Roost. Producer Sarah Blunt NATURE: Emma Turner; a life in the reeds BBC Radio 4, Tue 24 Jan 11.02, rpt Thur 26 Jan 21.02 Drawing on extracts from her book, ‘Broadland Birds’, NATURE tells the remarkable story of Emma Turner, a pioneering bird photographer who lived for many years on a houseboat in the reed beds at Hickling Broad. It was here that she took a remarkable photograph which provided evidence that Bitterns which had been driven to extinction in Britain in the late 1800s were breeding in Norfolk once again. Wildlife sound recordist: Chris Watson, Producer Sarah Blunt NATURE: In search of the Tiger’s Roar BBC Radio 4, Tue 31 Jan 11.02, rpt Thur 2 Feb 21.02 Chris Watson leads a team of wildlife sound recordists to Corbett National Park in India, in the hope of capturing the sounds of the forest and the roar of a Bengal tiger. Producer Sarah Blunt NATURE: Painting in Sound BBC Radio 4, Tue 7 Feb 11.02, rpt Thur 9 Feb 21.02 When the National Gallery in London invited wildlife sound recordist Chris Watson to create a piece inspired by a painting of his choice, it was the start of an innovative project exploring how paintings can be interpreted with sound. Producer Sarah Blunt]]> http://www.chriswatson.net/on_the_radio_2012.html http://www.chriswatson.net/on_the_radio_2012.html left Tue, 06 Dec 2011 17:32:26 +0000 The Quietus]]> http://www.chriswatson.net/review_of_el_tren_fantasma_in_the_quietus.html http://www.chriswatson.net/review_of_el_tren_fantasma_in_the_quietus.html left Fri, 02 Dec 2011 12:52:53 +0000 www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/bbcmusic/2011/11/the_best_albums_of_november_20.html]]> http://www.chriswatson.net/bbc_best_albums_of_november_2011.html http://www.chriswatson.net/bbc_best_albums_of_november_2011.html left Thu, 01 Dec 2011 15:08:25 +0000 full review here and buy the album and 12" vinyl in the TouchShop]]> http://www.chriswatson.net/review_of_el_tren_fantasma_by_andrew_weatherall.html http://www.chriswatson.net/review_of_el_tren_fantasma_by_andrew_weatherall.html left Tue, 15 Nov 2011 09:20:54 +0000 JMG Le Clezio in Le Louvre the author will deliver a presentation about his work in the auditorium this evening followed by a soundscape response to the writer's work by Chris Watson. This will be an Acousmatique diffusion of 'Oceanus pacificus' through a 24 channel system specially installed by GRM. You can read The Louvre's blog on soundlandscapes here]]> http://www.chriswatson.net/chris_watson_at_the_louvre_paris_3rd_november_2011.html http://www.chriswatson.net/chris_watson_at_the_louvre_paris_3rd_november_2011.html left Thu, 03 Nov 2011 09:40:15 +0000 Late Junction tonight on BBC Radio 3]]> http://www.chriswatson.net/el_tren_fantasma_on_late_junction_26th_october_2011.html http://www.chriswatson.net/el_tren_fantasma_on_late_junction_26th_october_2011.html left Wed, 26 Oct 2011 08:10:33 +0000 The Frozen Planet. The first of seven episodes, "To the Ends of the Earth", explores the poles of our planet, where worlds of ice and snow are inhabited by bizarre and extremely hardy creatures. At the North Pole, as the sun returns after six months of darkness, two polar bears show their tender side and humpback whales join the world's largest gathering of seabirds to feast in Alaskan waters...]]> http://www.chriswatson.net/the_frozen_planet_bbc1_9pm_26th_october_2011.html http://www.chriswatson.net/the_frozen_planet_bbc1_9pm_26th_october_2011.html left Tue, 25 Oct 2011 11:30:33 +0000 Chris Watson's new album, El Tren Fantasma, is due for release in the UK on 14th November 2011. A two track EP (vinyl) will be available shortly after... Here is more information: Chris Watson - El Tren Fantasma [Touch # TO:42] CD - 10 tracks - 65 minutes Artwork: Jon Wozencroft Mastered by Denis Blackham 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 "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." El Tren Fantasma, (The Ghost Train), is Chris Watson's 4th solo album for Touch, and his first since Weather Report in 2003, which was named as one of the albums you should hear before you die in The Guardian. A Radio programme was broadcast on BBC Radio 4 on Saturday 30 Oct, 2010, produced by Sarah Blunt, and described as "a thrilling acoustic journey across the heart of Mexico from Pacific to Atlantic coast using archive recordings to recreate a rail passenger service which no longer exists. It’s now more than a decade since FNM operated its last continuous passenger service across country. Chris Watson spent a month on board the train with some of the last passengers to travel this route. As sound recordist he was part of the film crew working on a programme in the BBC TV series Great Railways Journeys. Now, in this album, the journey of the ‘ghost train’ is recreated, evoking memories of a recent past, capturing the atmosphere, rhythms and sounds of human life, wildlife and the journey itself along the tracks of one of Mexico’s greatest engineering projects. The radio broadcast received national press coverage in the UK: The Observer: It is over a decade since FNM operated its last continuous passenger service across the country but here sound recordist Chris Watson recreates its atmospheric journey with the help of the train recordings he made while working on the BBC television series Great Railway Journeys... through desert and city, but it is the rocking rhythms of the train itself that prove most memorable. [Stephanie Billen] The Financial Times: El Tren Fantasma (8pm) is Archive on 4's recollection of a trans-Mexico rail journey by sound recordist Chris Watson. From desert to rainforest, hummingbirds' wings to the boom of heat rising from the Copper Canyon, it recalls a beloved passenger train system abandoned by privatisation. **** [Martin Hoyle] The Daily Telegraph: Sometimes, radio can awaken the mind and sharpen the senses like no other medium. This "sound portrait" of a now-abandoned railway line that used to run between the Pacific and Atlantic coasts of Mexico is a good case in point. Captured by sound recordist Chris Watson more than a decade ago, it jostles with human, animal and mechanical life, filling the room with an atmosphere that is more richly evocative of Central America than any TV travel show I've seen. Diesel engines thrum, cicadas chirrup and passengers chatter, sing and argue. [Pete Naughton] About the author... 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. His other releases on Touch (all still available) are listed below: Discography: CDs: TO:47 Weather Report (2003) | TO:37 Outside the Circle of Fire (1998) | TO:27 Stepping into the Dark (1996) Tone 43 Cross-Pollination [with Marcus Davidson] (2011) | Tone 27 Storm [with BJNilsen] (2005) Vinyl: TS02 Oceanus Pacificus (2007) and TO:42V The Signal Man due later this year]]> http://www.chriswatson.net/new_album_el_tren_fantasma_14th_november_2011.html http://www.chriswatson.net/new_album_el_tren_fantasma_14th_november_2011.html left Mon, 24 Oct 2011 16:45:43 +0000