Music by William Goodchild, Dan Brown & Batch Gueye
Africa’s Fishing Leopards comprised episode one of BBC Two’s Natural World series 2015 - 16.
Sir David Attenborough narrates the intimate story of a leopard mother and her two cubs. This leopard family must survive in the wilds of Botswana alongside lions, wild dogs and hyenas. Competition for food is tough and if the family is to survive they must learn a new skill: the art of fishing.
With the leopard family every step of the way is Cameraman and Producer Brad Bestelink. Brad’s 18 month journey following the lives of these secretive big cats offers a rare glimpse into an otherwise hidden world.
For the film’s score, William Goodchild collaborated with Dan Brown. Towards the end of the scoring process Producer Steve Gooder asked us to source and record an African singer. After a lot of searching online and asking around we hit on Bristol-based artist Batch Gueye who had just performed at WOMAD Festival. Batch’s writing and stunning vocal performances were the icing on the cake. You can hear Batch in 3 of the album’s 14 tracks: Shapeshifters, Desert Bloom and Wild Africa.
Shapeshifters featuring Batch Gueye was nominated for Best Independent Artist 2021 at AimSync 2021.
A film clip broadcast by BBC Earth on YouTube has had over 39 million views and many beautiful comments. Thank you! Watch here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lwLnObYwfCA
The film was nominated for Best Natural History Programme or Series at the RTS West of England 2016 Awards.
We thank Icon Films, NHFU, The Orchard and Redrocca for making this release possible. We also thank Producers Brad Bestelink and Steve Gooder, Editor Rupert Troskie, Dubbing Editor Richard Lambert and Series Editor Roger Webb for their creative collaboration; and Anne Miller and Frankie Vendetta at Accorder Music for their expertise and hard work in preparing the release.
The soundtrack is available on:
