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Chris
Watson - Stepping into the Dark
Touch
# TO:27
CD
12 Tracks - 59:43
1. Low Pressure
2. Embleton Rookery
3. The Crossroads
4. River Mara at Dawn
5. River Mara at Night
6. A Passing View
7. Bosque Seco
8. Sunsets
9. The Blue Men of the Minch
10. High Pressure
11. Gahlitzerstrom
12. The Forest Path
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Chris
Watson / info
Watson's
lead instrument is the tape recorder. After working with Cabaret Voltaire
and The Hafler Trio, he became sound recordist for the Royal Society for
the Protection of Birds. He has since joined a film and video production
company, working for BBC wildlife documentaries and occasional feature films.
"In recent years I have noticed that some of the particular locations I
have visited had an overall characteristic - sparkling acoustics, a special
timbre, sometimes rhythmic or transient animal sounds". Watson's interest
goes beyond the brief of the programmes he works on: he takes the chance
to explore "the intangible sense of being in a special place - somewhere
that has a spirit - a place that has an atmosphere".
The
12 recordings on Stepping into the Dark contrast a windswept forest
in Glen Cannich with the gathering conversations of rooks roosting in
a churchyard in Northumberland. Other atmospheres include the heat and
wall of sound found on the River Mara in Kenya, fishing bats on a mangrove
pool in Venezuela, the ritual dance of snipe at dusk in the Northern Hebrides...
a hydrophone at 5m. depth in the Moray Firth captures the signature whistles
and clicks of bottlenose dolphins.
-
- But
it is not simply a question of capture: nor do the atmospheres
settle softly into the genre of New Age-style environments. "These recordings
avoid background noise, human disturbance and editing. They are made
with sensitive microphones camouflaged and fixed in position well in
advance of any recording or animal behaviour. The mics. are cabled back
on very long leads or radio-linked back to a hide or concealed recording
point. Sites can be discovered by chance, by researching features on
a map, in history or through anecdote, and also in conversation with
local people about their feelings (both for and against) particular
places. Tom Lethbridge identified places for several spirits within
the local topography of an area. I suspect this also includes flora
and fauna, the time of day, the elements and the season."
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- "Sheer
class." (Akin, IRDIAL DISCS)
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