Gone Camping with Chris Watson Part 2

My trip to France and Camp with Chris Watson was so much fun it requires multiple posts. I have already gushed about the wonderful pastries, bread, powerful mustard and cheeses that seemed to always be available. But mustard was not the end of it; our residence for the week offered up some sonic pleasures as well.[1] One of these was the old hotel where we staying in the town of Aulus Les Bains.[2] The place had a ton of character – which to a bunch of sound recordists means that every door squeaked, every floorboard creaked, and there wasn’t a level surface to be found.

For this post I want to highlight some of the recordings by Bob and Bethan Kellough. They spent time recording some of the heavy downpours we had when we were there. One night we were all out at dinner when the skies opened up and they bolted from the table to get their rigs set up in the attic. That is dedication. Here are the results:

And here is another bit of rain from the alleyway. If you listen through you hear Bob make his way back into the building:

There was also a great fluorescent light in the entry hall that had a broken ballast.[3]

1. If you are in France please send mustard. I’m not kidding. If you are willing to send mustard please reach out.  ↩
2. The town’s big claim to fame are its baths from natural hot springs. The baths originally were known for their soothing powers in treating Syphilis. Now there isn’t much a need for natural syphilis treatments so they are now advertising the baths for the treatment of cholesterol and arthritis. I didn’t test out the efficacy of any of these treatments.  ↩
3. I want you to know that I performed the hell out of that on/off switch for Bob. I finally understood what Roland Kohloff must have felt like at the NY Phil. It does also sound like Bob was criticizing my performance during the process.  ↩