Isolation Room presents 'The Sylvan Space' created by Chris Watson

Headphones on, and...escape…
Isolation Room - binaural mix #4 - for slow listening in the lockdown
'The Sylvan Space'
A 9-hour dusk-til-dawn field recording from
Holystone oak woodland in Northumberland
as captured in surround sound by Chris Watson
Played in real-time 21.15 - 06.15 BST, June 12/13
Celebrated sound recordist Chris Watson had been using lockdown to explore some of the extraordinary wilderness locations a short trip away from his Northumberland home. At the top of his list is Holystone Oak Woodland in Northumberland National Park. Over one night at the start of this month Chris headed out with his recording equipment and a bivvy bag to capture the songs, sounds, and atmospheres of this ancient sacred forest.
Photography by Chris and Maggie Watson
“As soon as possible I was eager to get back out into Northumberland to soak up the sounds and atmospheres
of my favourite locations and Holystone Common has for me that very special sense of spirit and place.
“The location is an ancient sessile oak woodland on a dry south facing slope with stands of mature trees which create ideal sound stages. On the evening of May 31st I fixed a Schoeps microphone surround array under the canopy at my chosen spot and ran a cable 200m up the slope to an open area where I was hoping to avoid the wood ant colonies which patrol the forest floor.
“Around 2115h during the golden hour of sunset the evensong hung in the still dry air. Robins, cuckoos, blackbirds and a solitary woodcock, croaking frog like around its territory, kept me company as daylight retreated and the night shift emerged.
“Without torchlight my night vision held out until midnight after which I listened to the roe deer moving through the leaf litter on the periphery of the sound stage, later they would move into the clearing and browse around the mikes.
“The intense stillness was broken by the solo song of redstart around 0330h after which the dawn chorus slowly emerged out of the forest in advance of the sunrise over the eastern horizon.”
Microphone location:
Holystone oak woodland N 55 18.431’ W 002 06.343’
Chris Watson is one of the world’s foremost wildlife sound recordists, with a particular and passionate interest in the sounds of animals and habitats from around the world. As a composer and sound recordist Watson specialises in creating spatial sound installations, which feature a strong sense and spirit of place.
His television work includes many programmes in the David Attenborough ‘Life’ series including ‘The Life of Birds’ which won a BAFTA Award for ‘Best Factual Sound’ in 1996, and as the location sound recordist for the BBC series ‘Frozen Planet’, which also won a BAFTA Award for ‘Best Factual Sound’ (2012).
A response to the coronavirus crisis from longtime Sigur Rós co-manager John Best and sound designer David Sheppard, Isolation Room is a YT channel dedicated providing the very best of binaural (aka ‘headphone surround’) recordings during lockdown. We are extremely happy to be able to add this unique field recording by Chris to our recent catalogue of live musical collaborations with Jónsi & Alex Somers, John Luther Adams as played by Oliver Coates, and Icelandic singer-songwriter JFDR. Further music collaborations with Mount Kimbie, Anna Calvi and Jockstrap are coming soon.
Outside of lockdown, Isolation Room works as Loss/Gain to stage real-life surround sound events, presenting new ways of experiencing work by artists such as Steve Reich, Terry Riley, Anna Meredith, London Contemporary Orchestra, Rival Consoles, Claire M Singer, Todd Dockstader, Colin Curry Group and others, interpreted for d&b Audio’s multi-channel Soundscape system. Watch this space.
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[@Wildlife-film]

Fabulous listening! 👂🎧🎤🎶💚

[@nene_blimboblambo]

thank you!

[@tangofizz77]

This is super cool.

[@harrygilonis555]

Wonderful stuff; but when I lost my connection around 4 a.m. it started from the beginning again, even when I refreshed the page. Very disorientating, hearing “real time” 7 hours out of synch.!