After some snow crunching, and a discernibly heavy breath, a voice emerges from the near silence: “This is certainly the remotest landscape I have ever been recording in.” The speaker is one Chris Watson, long ago a founding member of Cabaret Voltaire, and for many years one of the foremost field recordists, capturing audio from around the globe.
“I’m about 78 degrees south,” he continues, “on this deep black tongue of lava and pumice, surrounded by ice and snow. This is Cape Evans on Ross Island in the Antarctic. And I’m just surrounded by the most remarkable, stunning, and daunting views I have ever seen, under this beautiful bright blue sky with a piercing sun. It’s 4pm. The sun’s not going to set. It’s not going to set for another two or three months.”