Edward Williams - Music From Life On Earth

This long lost soundtrack to the pioneering BBC nature classic is another buried treasure unearthed by Jonny Trunk.

To hear a Trunk record is to take a trip to another world; a world of zombie bikers and topless go-go dancers, where everyone listens to underwater jazz. As ambitious as the series that spawned it, Edward Williams’ score attempts to sum up the development of life on the planet, from the first fossils all the way through to mankind’s dominance. It’s an eerily beautiful listen, lulling, yet full of violence and drama.

Sometimes classical, sometimes as alien as Delia Derbyshire’s work, this aural history is as vivid today as it was thirty years ago.

7/10

Words by Ed Salmon