Tag: chris_watson

ambient music, other-music, RECOMMENDATIONS

Bruce Gilbert & BAW – Enrico Coniglio – Chris Watson – Felix Gebhard

Field recordings are often an important part of ‘ambient’ recordings. But there are many variations: from heavily processed, almost unrecognisable sounds to strictly natural representation – and everything inbetween.
Some impressive examples: 


Diluvial

BRUCE GILBERT AND DAW – DILUVIAL(*)
(*) – Release date: sept 2 – link will be replaced when available
With the basic material including field recordings from beaches in Suffolk and London (recorded by Naomi Siderfin, half of Beaconsfield ArtWorks), “Diluvial” originates from “local preoccupation with rising sea levels – a work that dwells on the dynamics of flood geology and global warming; creation stories and climate change”.
The basic material may consist of field recording of natural sounds, but the synthesized sounds generated by Bruce Gilbert (founding member of art-punk band Wire and experimental music researcher since 2004) and David Crawforth (the other half of BAW) in response to those recording take it to a completely different electroacoustic level.

ambient music, other-music, RECOMMENDATIONS

Chris Watson – El Tren Fantasma

There is, has been and will always be, a lot of debate about what “ambient” music is. Whatever you think of that, the word definitely has ambience in it, so the music will probably have something to do with the atmosphere of your surroundings. 

Closely related, yet still an entirely different matter, are what we call Field Recordings, and/or Environmental Soundscapes. 
The first strive to record environmental sounds as closely as possible to its origin, the second add an emotional  dimension to that recordings by deliberately manipulating these recordings into a soundscape. Which, inevitably leads to the discussion about the moment when sound becomes music.

Chris Watson is one of the very few real masters of this area (which might be a lot more challenging than you’d suspect). He was one of the founding members of Sheffield’s Cabaret Voltaire and the Hafler Trio, and started another career as a television sound recording engineer in 1981. 
Recording and documenting natural sounds, he has also specialised in assembling these recordings to fascinating soundscapes.
Most of his memorable works have been released on the Touch label, that recently presented his latest masterpiece: “El Tren Fantasma” (The Ghost Train).
And after listening to this album for quite a few times, I can easily state that this is certainly one of the most impressive soundscapes available.