Chris Watson - Outside the Circle of Fire

CD - 22 Tracks

The purr of a leopard close up against a baobab tree, waiting. Whales surfacing, breathing in cold air. Coll starling imitate the noise of farm machinery from the hollow ring of a ruined bothy. The rattle of wood over a black stream... Chris Watson's second CD is a dramatic contrast to the spacious atmospheres of "Stepping into the Dark" (Touch TO:27, 1996). Featuring 22 close-up recordings of animals, birds and insect life, "Outside the Circle of Fire" enlarges our awareness of the sound universe, intimate with voices from the past. There is an intensity here that television pictures cannot conjure.

Akin, IRDIAL:

"An exhilarating journey into nature's most private sonic ceremonies. Dreamily voyeuristic. Mysterious, perplexing, shocking and beautiful all at once. The Jaguar will destroy you."

1. WAITING

Close up against a baobab tree, a cheetah, waiting...

2. BREATHING IN COLD AIR

Breathing in cold air, Southern Right Whale

3. HORSE OF THE WOODS

Capull coille,'horse of the Caledonian woods'

4. SONG

Red rumped tinkerbird song

5. AT DUSK

The Maasai say hippos spend the day on the river bed telling jokes. At dusk they surface, laughing

6. WINTER FLAGS

Winter Flags on a spring tide. 20 000 knot find a roost

7. MACHINE NOISE

In the hollow ring of a ruined bothy, a starling mimics the noise of farm machinery

8. CANOPY

Dry topical contact calls follow spider monkeys through the canopy

9. SONG

Lemon rumped tinkerbird song

10. ACROSS THE IRIS BEDS

An evening chorus of corncrakes across the iris beds

11.THREAT

A lioness threatens

12. CRACKING VISCERA

Vultures taste the dry, crackling viscera inside the rib cage of a zebra carcass

13. DEEP ROAR

The deep roar of a red deer stag

14. UNKNOWN FOREST

Unknown forest duet

15. OUT OF OUR SIGHT

Out of our sight, motionless anticipation, along the dry sandy banks of the Zambesi a mozambique nightjar is sucking in all the remaining light

16. LEAF LITTER

Leaf litter insect detail

17. SOULS OF DEAD CHILDREN

The souls of dead children are said to pass into kittiwakes

18. FOREST FIRE

Wood pigeon wings across a forest ride

19. SLEEPING IN WARM AIR

Elephants, sleeping in warm air

20. RATTLE OF WOOD

Deathwatch beetles, the rattle of wood over a black stream

21. MOONLIT FOG

Tawny owls sing in moonlit fog

22. CONTACTS

Hyena contacts

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