Chris Watson

Christopher Richard Watson is an English musician and world-renowned sound recordist specialising in natural history.
Chris Watson’s sound recording career began when he joined Tyne Tees television in the 1980s where his work included sound recording for the popular programme SpringWatch. Since then he has developed a particular and passionate interest in recording the sounds of animals, their habitats and atmospheres from around the world. He is rightly considered one of the world’s leading recorders of wildlife and natural phenomena.

His work is published by Touch Music and he has released a variety of field recordings including Stepping into the Dark (which won an Award of Distinction at the 2000 Prix Ars Electronica Festival in Linz, Austria) and Weather Report, named as one of the ‘thousand albums you should hear before you die’ in The Guardian newspaper.

In recognition of his outstanding contribution to sound recording technology, especially in the field of natural history and documentary location sound, he was awarded an honorary Doctorate of Technology by the University of the West of England.

As a freelance recordist, Chris Watson specialises in natural history and documentary location sound, along with track assembly, filmic narrative and sound design in postproduction.

In 2010 he devised an art project at Liverpool’s Alder Hey Children’s Hospital, using sound recordings made by children to calm other young patients as they received injections and other treatments.

Fun Fact

Watson was a founding member of not one but two influential experimental music groups, Sheffield-based experimental music group Cabaret Voltaire, and The Hafler Trio.