‘In Britten’s Footsteps’ – the birds that inspired Britten

Sound Recordist Chris Watson has spent a year immersed in the countryside around Benjamin Britten’s home in Suffolk, recording and listening to the birdsongs which inspired the composer. Watson has incorporated these songs with the music of Britten to create a unique new piece called In Britten’s Footsteps which will premiere this February.

Watson says “The spatial aspect of the soundscape is … crucial. For that, I used a special microphone system that captures a whole sphere of sound, which is played back through a large array of speakers that surround the audience. That’s what makes these pieces special in terms of them being a performance. You can’t encapsulate this on a CD. Here the sound is all around you…” (The Guardian)

Click here to listen to an excerpt of Chris Watson’s audio.

Click here to read the feature in The Guardian and here for the Financial Times.