It’s just 3 weeks till Elsewhere, Elsewhen is officially released on 20th November. Pre-orders are going well and we’ve had quite a few radio plays already.
I’m looking forward to meeting lots of you at launch events and listening parties over the next few months and where better to start than in Nordic Viola’s own village of Dunblane!
We’ll be holding a launch and listening party with our friends the Weigh Ahead Gallery in Dunblane on Monday 20th November from 7pm. You’ll be able to listen to the CD over a drink and find out more about the creative process behind it in a conversation hosted by local author, Jim Fraser. And of course you’ll be able to buy a CD!
If you’d prefer a digital album, it’s available now on all major streaming platforms via this link: https://listen.scot/nvelse
If you’re planning on coming to our Dunblane launch, it’d really help if you could book a free place via eventbrite to help us cater. And remember, spaces are limited in this intimate venue.
It’s been brilliant to work with artist Orla Stevens again on the artwork. Why not bag yourself a print or card of her beautiful paintings in response to three of the music tracks from our merchandise page when you buy your album!
Future Launch Events
We’re also in the process of planning launch events in Glasgow and Orkney. Subscribe here to keep up-to-date with events:
I know many of you who follow this blog regularly live further afield and I’m considering doing an online listening party. If that’s something you’d be interested in, it’d be really useful to know, so drop me a line here or via social media.
A quick reminder that On A Wing and A Prayer with Renzo Spiteri in Shetland is streaming right now until 23:30GMT on Monday 30th October.
You can still sign up to listen via Eventbrite here with a donation to cover licensing and editing costs. You’ll receive a link to the recording on Soundcloud as well as a dropbox link to view the programme, which includes two specially commissioned poems from Lesley Harrison.
Once again regretting the non-existence of a ferry between the Faroes and Shetland, after less than a week at home, I was travelling north again to Shetland, thankfully by train and boat this time!
Katherine Wren and Renzo Spiteri
Creative Process
After 6 months of working with composer, percussionist and sound artist Renzo Spiteri and poet Lesley Harrison on the first stage of my On A Wing and A Prayer project, it was time for the inaugural concert. It’s been an interesting process working on a collaborative project at a distance over a period of time and not something I’d necessarily have thought of taking on pre-pandemic. It’s been amazing to see how in each intervening period, the work has come on in leaps and bounds as we each listened back to work in progress, honing the structure and the sounds we were working with, sending musical material back and forth to push on our ideas. It’s a great way of working over large distances whilst doing minimal damage to the environment.
Changing habitats
Meanwhile, the ecological issues we were focusing on were developing over time, meaning that our response changed too. These issues were principally bird flu and the dichotomy of the benefits of renewable energy versus the damage done to moorland, peatland and birdlife in its construction. We chose not to present a particular standpoint but to express our own emotions through music in the hope that it would become a vehicle for other people to express theirs.
Poetry
The final piece in the jigsaw was Lesley Harrison’s poetry. Renzo and I both felt we needed language as a focal point for the music and we sent some clips of our preliminary work to Lesley, a poet who has a very strong affinity with music. In turn, Lesley’s words provided the final impetus to our work as we asked Shetlander Billy Mail to read them for us, so we could incorporate them into the musical texture. Lesley prefers us to use the words sparingly in a way that serves a real function in the music. At the same time, they’re poems that deserve an airing in full, and so they’re printed in the programme. If you sign up to our online concert 28th-30th October then you’ll receive a link to this.
The Boat Hall, Shetland Museum
The performance
Our performance took place in the Boat Hall at Shetland Museum. I love performing in this space with its views across the harbour and the sixareen next to us as an ever-present reminder of seafaring. The core of our programme was a triptych of pieces by us: Serenity, Bleakness and Windfarm. For those interested in our compositional process, these were partly scored whilst leaving some room for improvisation on the day. The music took us from a state of calm by the sea with birdcalls and the lapping of the water, through a reflection on the bleakness of the open moor, the damage done to the peatland and the impact of bird flu on the skua population. Windfarm speaks for itself with a mixture of industrial sounds, uncomfortable low frequencies and the human voice, followed by an intense processional marking large-scale human footprint on the landscape – and it was scale we were focusing on in this piece and not the principle of renewables, which is something I very much support when done sensitively and with respect.
Mousa Broch
Continuing our reflections on birdlife, we performed two movements from Drrrunnn by Faroese composer Kristian Blak. The first of these featured storm petrels, recalling my visit to Mousa Broch last summer and the second featuring guillemots, fulmars and gannets. Gannets, of course, have been heavily impacted by bird flu. There had been a Faroese element in Serenity too, as my melody was inspired by the contours of a Faroese hymn.
The performance finished on a positive note with our arrangement of the old Fetlar tune, Winya Depla.
Audience Response
We got many responses to our question “What is the first thing that comes to mind when thinking about our changing habitat?” Here are a few comments:
“Deep sadness, impotence, rage and – hope“
“Missing the birds: dunter, puffins, tirrick – only a few are around now“
“It feels like so few people really care!“
“We need to apologise to the earth and the sea and all the creatures we share a dying planet with“
“It has always changed. It will always change.“
As On A Wing and A Prayer progresses and the body of thoughts grows I need to think about how to collate and present these ideas and I’d love to hear your thoughts, so please do either comment or use the contact form. One idea I have is to arrange some intergenerational workshops taking these immediate responses as a stimulus to create music and art by the community. What do you think?
Online Concert
Sign up here to listen to a recording of our Shetland performance from 28th-30th October. Suggested donation is £5 to cover music licensing and recording costs, but pay just what you can afford. Here’s a short taster:
Enjoying autumn in Shetland
Aside from the music-making, I had a little time to enjoy Shetland although, burdened by a cold, it was all short trips close to Lerwick. I did have time after one rehearsal, though, to explore the isthmus where Renzo lives in bright sunshine between heavy showers. Beautiful panoramic views across the sea to the Drongs and Eshaness, one of the most dramatic areas of Shetland. The bus journey out to West Mainland is always a delight, especially as you summit the climb over to Whiteness Voe and see Burra and all the small islands set against the silvery light on the water at midday.
I also cycled across Bressay and spent some time by Noss Sound in the most exquisite autumn light. The sea was a deep blue, the land a mixture of bright greens and vegetation starting to turn brown. A series of convective showers offered a fine and varied display of cloud formations and some full double rainbows.
This year I’ve been lucky to work in Shetland in three seasons (spring did a good shot at masquerading as winter, too!). Summer was lovely and offered easy living, but I have to say, I love the light quality and shifting weather of the equinoxes more. Shetland in the snow in March was an especial treat and something I’ll never forget. I’ve learned so much working with Renzo and we’re already planning new projects working with musicians further north. Watch this space!
I know many of you enjoy learning about the places we work in, so I thought I’d take some time to reflect and share some of the lovely landscapes we experienced as well as the music we made! Part one is the Faroe Islands and tomorrow I’ll update you on Shetland!
Faroe Islands
Following our appearance at Made In Scotland in Edinburgh and our online event last summer we connected with the Nordic House in Tórshavn. I was really keen to take Sagas and Seascapes up to the Faroe Islands as music by Kári Bæk and Eli Tausen á Lava formed a big part of our programme and so conversations began straight away with Aldubáran (our Faroese counterparts) and the Nordic House in Tórshavn to do a joint production of the show.
And so on 4th September, Anne Bünemann (violin), Robert Digney (clarinet) and I found ourselves on the stunning approach between mountains to Vágar airport. Not for the nervous flyer. (Quick environmental note here: I would dearly love to take the ferry to the Faroes, especially as it passes the tip of Shetland, but unfortunately it takes about 4 days in each direction, two ferry crossings and trains via Holland and Denmark. We really need Smyril line to stop in Shetland again – as it used to decades ago).
The following day we met and rehearsed with our colleagues from Aldubáran: Andrea Heindriksdóttir (flute), Jón Festirstein (violin) and Kristina á Váli (cello). I’ll confess to a few nerves about bringing two ensembles together with limited rehearsal time on a complex programme, but I needn’t have worried as the two ensembles quickly blended. It was such a joy to share this music from our two countries together. As ever, the door to the music school in Tórshavn was always open to us (and what a fabulous facility it is) and it quickly became our “home” – a place to practise and meet colleagues between rehearsals. Thank you to all for making us feel so welcome!
Kirkjubøur
The weather in September can get pretty wild (as I experienced in 2016!) so we got out whilst we could and walked as far as we had time for across Streymoy from Tórshavn towards Kirkubøur, the panoramic views of the rocky islands of Koltur and Hestur (the colt and the horse) opening out before us. Linguists amongst you will spot the link to the old name for Orkney’s capital, Kirkwall – Kirkjuvagr. Both places are the “inlet of the church” and both have a St. Magnus Cathedral, though the Faroese one is in ruins. Always these historical links to explore!
The next day was taken up by more rehearsals before Anne and I popped up to the Nordic House to meet the staff and look round the venue. What a beautiful venue it is, reflecting on the cultural heritage of the islands, both in its work and its architecture. A place to enjoy the arts, to meet people and to relax, looking across the town and out to sea.
Sagas and Seascapes in the Nordic House
Thursday the 7th September was our first concert day in the Main Hall of the Nordic House with Craig Sinclair and Orla Stevens‘ beautiful film on its biggest screen ever!
Nordic Viola and Aldubáran were a unit by now and it was an absolute joy to bring our programme to the Faroes and to perform Eli Tausen á Lava’s Søgnin um Kópakonuna and Kári Bæk’s Wogen at home. For me, it was an honour to perform “Wogen” live with Kári in the hall after working together to transcribe this cello solo for viola.
There were, of course, other references to the Faroes in the programme. Aud (music by Linda Buckley), as well as travelling to Iceland via Orkney, had also rested in the Faroe Islands on her way north, where she married off one of her granddaughters, Ólöf . The town of Gøta, which we would pass through later in the week, was named after Torbjørn Gøtuskegg, who is said to have descended from Ólöf, Torbjørn was the father of the famous Tróndur í Gøtu, who is the central character of Færeyinga saga. Today, the town of Gøta consists of four smaller villages: Norðragøta, Syðrugøta, Gøtueiði and Gøtugjógv. Some street names in Norðragøta still remind us of the central figures of this saga: Tróndargøta (Tróndur í Gøta), Óluvugøta (Ólöf, granddaughter of Aud) and Eyðargøta (Aud herself).
Additionally, composer Kristian Blak tells me that the Danish tune the Dromer, as well as being drawn from the Scottish tune, The Drummer, is also recorded by Svabo in the Faroes.
Nólsoy
The following day was free so we took the opportunity to take the ferry past the old parliament area of Tinganes and over to the island of Nólsoy. Nólsoy was the home of national hero Nólsoyar Páll who fought to end the Royal Trade Monopoly which was exhausting and impoverishing the people of the Faroe Islands between 1271 and 1856. It is also home to a large colony of storm petrels, some of which have been ringed and traced to the Shetland Islands, where they breed on Moussa – a colony I’d seen in July.
On a blustery day, we walked to the two lighthouses at the southern end of the Island, enjoying the hills, the sea, the birds and wildlife.
Klaksvík
On Saturday we travelled to Klaksvík on the northern island of Borðoy. For the Nordic Viola musicians it was a chance to travel early and enjoy the scenic bus journey across three islands, passing through Norðragøta and Syðrugøta with its reminders of Aud and Leirvík with its very obvious linguistic link to Shetland’s capital, Lerwick – muddy bays both!
We had hoped to perform in the brand new cultural centre, Varpið, but sadly it’s not quite ready. Next time! The school was still a lovely place to play, though, with its wooden, airy hall and informal banked seating. A picture from rehearsals – I apologise for my lack of concert dress due to getting the film up and running!
Concerts successfully completed, we travelled back to Tórshavn through the famous new Esturoy tunnel with its three-way roundabout in the middle. Jón duly obliged by driving round it twice whilst we took pictures!
Vestmanna
Concerts duly completed and a free day before our flight home gave us the opportunity to spend a day in and around Vestmanna, famous for its bird cliffs. Sadly, ocean currents meant we couldn’t go to the cliffs themselves, but then, the nesting season is over anyway and the sea caves and rock formations on Vágar were equally stunning and will surely inspire future performances.
Thank you
Taking Sagas and Seascapes to the Faroes and performing with Aldubáran was a great privilege. Anne, Robert and I would like to thank Made In Scotland for promoting our performances in Edinburgh last summer and exposing our work to international promoters. Many thanks also to Orkney International Science Festival who first commissioned Sagas and Seascapes.
We also need to extend a big thank you to all the creators who were unable to travel with us. Composers Gemma McGregor, Lillie Harris and Linda Buckley, artist Orla Stevens and videographer Craig Sinclair, as well as the three Nordic Viola musicians we left at home. Without you, this trip would, of course, never have happened. Please visit our Sagas and Seascapes to learn more about their work.
If you would like to bring Sagas and Seascapes to a venue near you, please do get in touch here. It is now available with both English and Danish subtitles and we especially hope to be able to work alongside Aldubáran again, both in Scotland and the Nordic countries.
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