Each different sound becomes a new character in these three stories, a character you may grow attached to. The crackling of the natural ship (it really sounds like a huge boat made of wood planks), the wind, and the songs of seagulls form the core of the soundscape. "Vatnajökull," the third and last piece, proposes another very different setting: a glacier that lies on the southeast corner of Iceland. Rain is the predominant sound, but there is a lot more going on, including a number of cows saluting the recordist. "The Lapaich" takes place from September to December in a Scottish highland glen (again seamlessly reduced to 18 minutes). A lion's roar opens this 18-minute reduction of a 14-hour recording of nature playing by its own rules. In "Ol-Olool-O," that would be in the Kenyan savannah. Plus, his recording skills put you right where he wants you to be. His nature recordings are left untouched, but he selects, blends, and edits the sounds together to form aural story lines of great beauty and immediacy. He is not a field recording purist, but he doesn't turn his prime materials into abstract sound art, either. Again, Watson delivers a platter of amazing sounds. It took five years for sound recordist extraordinaire Chris Watson to come up with a follow-up to the 1998 CD Outside the Circle of Fire. Purchase and download this album in a wide variety of formats depending on your needs.
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