Watson, Chris & Davidson, Marcus – “Cross-pollination” – [Touch]

cinder   9/23/2011   A Library, CD

Two amazing field recording tracks. The first by Chris alone, and the second he’s joined with Marcus. Chris Watson is a British environmentalist and sound archivist who has even worked with David Attenborough. The first track is recorded from the Kalahari Desert in Africa, from sunset to sunrise, hence the name Midnight At The Oasis. Most of the deserts life is nocturnal (probably due to scorching suns), and the night becomes a vast plate of insectual noise. Clicking, rattling, shaking, shifting and scuffling. You can hear the buzzing and droning of the druids, and clicking of the calls. Subtle winds blow through the grass. A very image provoking track, you can almost picture each little bug surviving the sands, a very alien feel to it. Keep listening as frogs and some sort of howling creature lurk in. As it nears the end of the track, you can tell the sun is starting to rise as all the birds begin to chirp and chime in. Very relaxing, great for mixing. The second track is a bee haters worst nightmare. It begins innocently enough with happy chirping birds, but slowly the swarms start to buzz. There’s a human element of voice drone, adding into the zombie hum of the worker bees. They become “alive” and create ghostly songs halfway though. Fascinating!