Composing in Shetland and other news!

I’ve been a little quiet over here on the blog since our last performance in January but plenty has been happening in the background as previous projects continue to grow and expand and new ones take shape.

One of these has been simmering away in the background since September 2021 and is now gathering pace. When we visited Shetland to perform Sagas and Seascapes in the Shetland Museum Boat Hall in 2021, I also received some development funding from Creative Scotland to work on an improvisational project with percussionist, composer and sound artist Renzo Spiteri.

Working with Renzo Spiteri in Shetland

Renzo and I first met at the University of the Highlands and Islands’ Shoormal Conference in 2019 where we were both performing. We were immediately curious about each other’s music. We all know what happened in 2020, but despite all that, we were keen to maintain contact, even if travel was impossible.

2020 did, of course, offer up the opportunity to experiment with new ways of working. It wasn’t just that it was forced upon us, it was also that, with a slower pace of life, we had time to learn new skills. For me, this was audio recording and editing, something that Renzo was already adept at. And so it was that we started exchanging tracks, responding to each other’s musical material and seeing what we could create together.

As fun and diverting as that was during lockdown, it was fabulous to finally make music together in the flesh in 2021 and to improvise live together. Those first sessions were about finding our way and combining our musical voices. We worked freely without a theme, each musician suggesting a starting point and improvising out from that. It quickly became clear that we both have a fascination with timbre and texture and love working with both instrumental music and recorded natural sounds. For both of us, the natural environment is a vital inspiration for our work.

Between our online creations and recordings of that September period, we had a fair body of material to work with and, fuelled by our frustration over people’s inability to grasp the harm we are doing to the natural world, a theme was suggesting itself. Our programme will move from the peace of nature and the sea that is common to all the isles of the North Atlantic, through reflections on the natural bleakness of these windswept environments and on to the damage that mankind is doing to these sensitive ecologies as we exploit them.

Shetland in the Snow

I can’t leave these musings on our work together without mentioning how heart-stoppingly beautiful and inspiring the Shetland landscape was during our latest spell working together. As we worked, the view from the studio window changed from gunmetal skies and lashing blizzards to sparkling winter scenes, the sun dazzling us with its reflection across the sea inlets and shining off the deep powder snow. Peaty browns and spindly old heather replaced by a two-tone landscape of blue and white. The environment outside was as inspiring as it was distracting and I’m sure some interesting work will come of it.

Shetland Connections

Staying with a Shetland theme and following on from David and I’s Shetland Connections performance in Dunblane, I’m currently working on an online version of this concert at the suggestion of friends in Unst, Shetland. The Dunblane performances raised £360, half of which went towards our forthcoming CD and half towards Ability Shetland, a charity that supports the efforts of disabled people to realise their full potential in all areas of life. The online concert will similarly be by donation, again with a 50/50 split between Nordic Viola and Ability Shetland.

I will post again here when the concert is broadcast and tickets will be available via Eventbrite.

Forthcoming album

Speaking of our CD, I will launch the project formally with full details of the music we’ll be featuring when final funding announcements are made, but I am now in a position to tell you that this project will definitely be going ahead this year. Many thanks to all those who have donated through our Crowdfunder stretch target last year, our Dunblane concerts and as private individuals. It’s exciting to share this journey with you.

Sagas and Seascapes Website

Finally, our Sagas and Seascapes project continues to attract attention and artist Orla Stevens has been working on an update of our website. She’s also added a blog on the creation of her new painting in response to Faroese composer Eli Tausen á Lava’s “Søgnin um Kópakonuna í 10 Myndum” (The Tale of the Sealwoman). Again, this painting was funded by money from our Sagas and Seascapes Crowdfunder last year.

Pop over to sagasandseascapes.com to see all this and more.

Following our successful live performances at Made In Scotland in Edinburgh last year, Sagas and Seascapes live with music and film is available to tour. You can contact me on either website if you’re interested in bringing it to your area.

Options include:

• the full sextet of live musicians performing with the film
• the “light” version with the full Sagas and Seascapes film screened in HD and the smaller chamber pieces performed live
• a concurrent exhibition of Orla’s paintings in response to the music
• Orla and I can also offer art and music community workshops alongside performances