Thirty years ago, David Attenborough’s Life On Earth birthed the modern wildlife documentary. So groundbreaking, it took him five years to follow it up (with 1984’s The Living Planet), while every “evolution”- based documentary series since has followed in its footsteps.
And so it should be for this soundtrack. Originally in a run of about 100 (see Diggin’ For Gold, page 142), composer Edward Williams pressed these 16 cuts from the series’ 13 episodes as a gift to those who worked on them. In true Trunk fashion, however, an obscure soundtrack gets found in a record box somewhere, a series of communications begins and, before long, your man Jonny has it reissued.
Beautiful, poignant – not only does this sound just like the birth, death and continual rebirth of the world’s fauna and flora, it’s a stunning modern classical listen, given an edge thanks to Williams’ mastery of the vintage VSC 3 synth. Track such as Coral Larvae – Arabesque For Flatworms sound a little like Side Two of Bowie’s Low, with wide-open embrace replacing cold paranoia. The Sex Life Of The Fern, meanwhile, surely influenced David Dundas and Rick Wentworth’s incidental music for Withnail & I, while Man – A Choice For The Future Of Life On Earth? weaves synth arrangements around a ghostly Attenborough musing on the future of mankind, not a million miles away from Gavin Bryars’ The Sinking Of The Titanic. Possibly the most important and beautiful release yet from Britain’s greatest treasure.
