1996

Touch releases the first solo CD by Chris Watson, formerly sound recordist with the Royal Society for Protection of Birds, and later sound recordist for many BBC wildlife programmes, including David Attenborough’s award-winning Life of Birds. Closely followed by the highly acclaimed +/- by Ryoji Ikeda, the minimalist Japanese composer who also composes and arranges the sound for the performing troupe Dumb Type. The Wire described it as “an absolutely indispensible bridge between sinetone minimalism and Panasonic-style modernist techno”. It is difficult to describe. Hilmar Örn Hilmarsson’s elegiac soundtrack to the film “Children of Nature” acts as the perfect counterpoint.