Edward Williams - Life on Earth

  by Spencer Robertshaw

published: 12 / 12 / 2009

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This is a fascinating recording. The music composed by Edward Williams for the famous groundbreaking BBC series of the same name. This production was intended to complement an reproduce many scenes and soundscapes that the programme visited during it’s conception. Electronica, orchestration and a great sense of beauty take the mind's eye underwater and then across the Arctic and into petrified forests with this ‘soundtrack’. Listening to music written to complement and give vision to Garter snakes in their mating dance is mad, isn’t it?. How about a dropping a little ditty to put the funk into ‘The Sex Life Of A Fern’? The whole CD is far from a stocking filler though. Obviously it was not meant to be but, it is an intiguing listen and the best use I can see for it is for sample snippets to be used in the production of maybe the next Coldcut, Pablo or DJ Yoda mix up. This background music will make some brilliant backgrounds and layers for future music productions, but when I listen to it I don’t immediately think of ferns mating or giant clams shoplifting from Tesco’s. It is best not to read the track listings before you skip through the CD. If you really want to be cruel send it to one of your mates who smokes too much wacky backy and give him a call about an hour later. "Hey man, Fern’s mating. Yeah, heavy stuff." If this type of music appeals to you then this is the ‘Rolls Royce’ of recordings. As with all media , make an informed choice, but with this you will find yourself on to a safe bet.

Track Listing:-

1 Life On Earth Begins In The Sun's Energy
2 First Fossils - Blue Greens - Ciliates
3 Comb Jellies - Hydromedusae - ''Birth'' Of A Medusa - Gymnopedie For Jellyfish
4 Coral Larvae - Arabesque For Flatworms
5 The Giant Clam - Slow Dance For Nudibranchs - Glaucus And Valla
6 The Sex Life Of The Fern - Spores, Fertilization And Growth - Pine Cones And The Petrified Forest
7 Coming Out Music - The Leaf Bug - The Spiny Leaf Insect Sheds It's Skin - Cocoon Spinners
8 Fish Of The Sea - Shoals And Loners On The Reef
9 Eusthenopteron And The Primeval Swamp
10 Nile Crocodile Family - Oral Transport For The Young
11 Mating Dance For Prairie Garter Snakes
12 Birds In Flight - Stork - Fairy Tern - Sooty Tern - Tropic Bird - Frigate Bird - Albatross
13 A Gullimaufry Of Small Mammals - Duckbilled Platypus Swimming - Desman Underwater - Pygmy Or (Silky Furred) Anteater And Baby - Flying Foxes - The Several Punces
14 The Big Mammals - Elephant And Their Ancestors - Lion Hunt - Wildebeeste Stampede - Lion Kill
15 Japanese Macaques - Warm Baths In A Snowscape
16 Man - A Choice For The Future Of Life On Earth?

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