Chris Watson
Chris Watson
University of Glasgow Concert Hall
Kate Molleson
Chris Watson's art is epic, transporting and inspirational, and at the same time utterly straight-forward. In the 1970s he founded the Sheffield post-punk band Cabaret Voltaire; now 60, he records wildlife and natural environments all over the world.
In the first part of this lecture/performance he talked about the Galapagos and Icelandic glaciers, about train journeys across Mexico and Scott's Antarctic hut where nothing has changed since the explorer walked out. "Just the sound of wind catching the chimney," he described. "Like listening back in time to next-to-nothing." There was unfussy poetry to the way he explained his work.
A broader climate change message was woven in lightly but persuasively: by making us imagine these environments, Watson's recordings also make us care.
His performance consisted of a 40-minute surround-sound live mix of oceanic sounds. Starting on Shetland with a screeching cacophony of coastal birds, his hydrophones soon dipped under the surface to follow seals, dolphins and pistol shrimps.
Each animal was introduced one by one, like characters making entries in an opera. Waves provided ostinatos and pedal notes; the underwater acoustic made a booming acoustic backdrop.
Eventually we arrived at humpback whales in the Dominican Republic, where the males sing three-hour song cycles - "Wagnerian!" Watson chuckled - with sounds so powerful that their vibrations stimulate the females to ovulate.
I noticed that everyone in the audience around me had their eyes closed: this was vivid, fascinating listening.
Whether to attribute spiritual or musical meaning to the noises was up to each listener. For me, it was about simply envisaging these magnificent marine singers. The 40 minutes were gone in a flash.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article