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Recommended by us on 29th October 2009
...according to our Phil on Thu 29 Oct, 2009.
I can't count the amount of times I've watched David Attenborough documentaries. I bought 'em all donkeys years ago and I've watched 'em all loads. Falling asleep listening to David Attenborough is literally one of the nicest things that can happen to you! Trunk very wisely have re released the soundtrack to Life On Earth for you, the general massive. I hope you're grateful! Composed by Edward Williams this was originally released by the Beeb in an edition of 100 and it was distributed to the orchestra who played on it. Thus it's rare as.... From the opening notes you're treated to an surprisingly eerie spooky soundtrack laden with strings, oboes, cornets... err an entire orchestra. Beautifully composed music with weird electronics popping up (they sound electronic) making the whole thing sound very spooky. You can see how some of these pieces would perfectly fit over a montage of fighting dogs or plants shitting or whatnots. Superb stuff!* Yet another superlative soundtrack release from Trunk Records: The groundbreaking natural history programme Life On Earth hit TV screens 30 years ago, in 1979. This is the first time the beautiful music composed for the series has been commercially issued. It’s quite extraordinary that something so utterly beautiful has remained unissued until now.
* Jonny was given permission by Sir David Attenborough and John Sparks (the renowned naturalist and producer of the series) to use their world famous image of the tree frog for the front cover.
* Johnny Greenwood from Radiohead decided to place a link to this Life On Earth story on the front page of the Radiohead website.
* THE MUSIC: The sounds composed and created for the series are quite magical. It’s the sound of science, of underwater life, of progress,flight, fight, death and courtship. We have swamps, petrified forests, snowscapes and coral reefs. And of course music composed for a wide variety of birds, animals and sea-dwellers of all shapes and sizes.
* Influences include Erik Satie, British pastoral composition of the post war period and pioneering UK electronics. What’s extraordinary is that Edward Williams seemed to created a sound way ahead of his time; listen to track two or three and you will hear music that could easily be mistaken for the contemporary soundtrack work of Cliff Martinez or Clint Mansell.
* THE COMPOSER: Edward Williams is an extraordinary composer and inventor. Born in 1921, at Hindhead, Surrey - his poet, journalist and art historian father a keen amateur naturalist and folksong collector, his mother the musical daughter of a Colorado cattle rancher.
* He wrote the music for a large number of documentary films, including several devoted to wild life subjects, as well as some music for theatre and radio. Two films from this time, "Dylan Thomas" (an evocation of the poet’s life and work) and "Wild Wings" (about Peter Scott and the wildfowl sanctuary at Slimbridge) were awarded Hollywood "Oscars". Later he worked on several programmes for the BBC Natural History Unit, culminating in David Attenborough’s "Life on Earth" BBC series - with "The Discovery of Animal Behaviour" and "The Living Isles" and "Earth" following later.
* Vinyl Limited To 500 only.
* THE TRACKLISTING: 1) Life On Earth begins in the Sun’s Energy Programme 1: The Infinite Variety 2) First Fossils - Blue Greens - Ciliates Programme 1: The Infinite Variety 3) Comb Jellies - Hydromedusae - "Birth" Of A Medusa - Gymnopodie For Jellyfish Programme 1: The Infinite Variety 4) Coral Larvae - Arabesque For Flatworms Programme 2: Building Bodies 5) The Giant Clam - Slow Dance For Nudibranches - Glaucus And Valella Programme 2: Building Bodies 6) The Sex Life Of The Fern - Spores, Fertilization and Growth - Pine Cones and the Petrified Forest Programme 3: The First
Forests 7) Coming Out Music - The Leaf Bug - The Spiny Leaf Insect Sheds Its Skin - Cocoon Spinners Programme 4: The Swarming Hordes 8) Fish Of The Sea - Shoals And Loners on the reef Programme 5: The Conquest OF The Waters 9) Eusthenopteron and the Primeval Swamp Programme 6: Invasion Of The Land 10) Nile Crocodile Family - Oral Transport For The Young Programme 7: Victors Of The Dry Land 11) Mating Dance For Prairie Garter Snakes Programme 8: Victors Of The Dry Land 12) Birds In Flight - Stork - Fairy Tern - Sooty Tern - Tropic Bird - Frigate Bird - Albatross Programme 9: Lords Of The Air 13) A Gallimaufrey Of Small Mammals - Duckbilled Platypus Swimming - Desman Underwater - Pygmy Silky Furred Anteater and baby - Flying Foxes - the Serval Pounces Programme 9: The Rise Of The Mammals, Programme 10: Theme And Variation 14) The Big Mammals - Elephants and their ancestors - Lion Hunt - Wildebeeste stampede - Lion kill Programme 11: The Hunters And The Hunted 15) Japanese Macaques - Warm baths in a snowscape Programme 12: Life In The Trees 16) Man - A Choice for the future of Life On Earth? Programme 13: The CompulsiveCommunicators
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