Chris Watson was a founding member of the influential Sheffield, UK-based experimental music group Cabaret Voltaire during the late 1970s and early 1980s. Since then he has developed a particular and passionate interest in recording the wildlife sounds of animals and habitats from around the world. As a composer and sound recordist Watson specialises in creating spatial sound installations which feature a strong sense and spirit of place.

His television work includes many programmes in the David Attenborough “Life” series, including The Life of Birds (1998), which won a BAFTA Award for Best Factual Sound in 1999, and location sound recording for the BBC series Frozen Planet (2011–12) which also won a BAFTA in 2012. In 2011 Watson received the Royal Television Society’s prestigious Centre Award for the North East & Borders.

Watson has recorded and featured in many BBC Radio 4 and BBC World Service productions including The Wire, which won him the Broadcasting Press Guild’s Broadcaster of The Year Award (2012). His music is regularly featured on the BBC Radio 3 programme Late Junction. He has also worked extensively for Irish RTE Radio 1 on series such as Sound Stories.

Watson’s music is released by the London based label and publisher Touch. His CD Weather Report (2003) was voted as one of the 1000 best albums to hear before you die by The Guardian newspaper in 2007.

Watson’s installations have been commissioned by international galleries and festivals including Millennium Gallery, Sheffield; Opera North, Leeds; The National Gallery, London; Musée du Louvre, Paris; the Aichi Triennale in Japan; and Unsound Festival, in Kraków, Poland.

Image credits: Courtesy of the contributor