Well they were Sat night at a Field recordists performance by sound artist Chris Watson former member of Cabaret Voltaire and David Attenboroughs sound man.

The performance was held at the Adam Art Gallery which also had some local sound works by about 10 local artists with the theme being Red Rocks, which is the coast around Wellington. A walk around the space was an overload of sound with some of the works barely audible taking away from individual works and as a whole creating a cacophony of noise. Notable works were a human penguin playing a water addled flute and a suited man coating a piece of paper with coloured pencil while turning on and off a pre recorded dictaphone at seemingly important points of the colouring in process, both performance pieces.

Chris Watson gave a mental image of his 30 min piece before it began, explaining that this work was recorded on a secluded tree less Island off the coast of Iceland were the moss is so thick it soaks in the sound of the various birds that dwell there, His recording journey starts at the ocean, investigates a glacier and ends up a mountain and into the lava fueled underworld.

It took a little while to relax my ears and feel the sound but once i did the supremely recorded surround sound was fantastic beginning in an earth bound reality and ending in an under worldly abstraction. Field recording at its best Chris Watson delivers the goods, seamless editing with slight processing to tackle the issues of human hearing time, letting us in too another world that certainly exists in nature that we would not be able to enjoy with out the likes of this man.

Any way im probably not doing it justice i should just say its fucken good go explore some Chris Watson, im not even gonna give you a link you have google don’t you.

shannon