FitkinWall Harpland Queen's Hall 18th May 2024 Review
FitkinWall – Harpland at the Queen’s Hall Edinburgh tonight was one of those times where the music performed really needed a venue with that elusive ingredient of a special acoustic space to make the works performed just that little bit extra special, so this was a perfect combination for everyone, musicians and audience alike.
FitkinWall are to some people an unlikely musical duo where the worlds of contemporary electronica and traditional harp music meet and combine into something very individual and unique. For Harpland, composer Graham Fitkin has re-imagined traditional tunes from Scotland, Ireland, England, and further afield to allow Ruth Wall to explore new dimensions to what her harps can sound like.
Each harp played this evening, the Renaissance bray harp (with its wooden blocks at the bottom of strings that give it at times a sitar like resonance), the medieval Gaelic wire harp (clàrsach) and an electronic harp, has its own special acoustics, its own special voice. Perhaps the most unexpected sounds of all though came from the latter as it allowed Ruth Wall to explore so many acoustic possibilities in the music tonight.
There is a loose connection around all of tonight’s music and that is migration, both of the very elements of nature itself, birds, sea life, and of course people. Sometimes that migration is people being forced from their traditional lands and culture as in the Highland clearances where so many were to start new lives in new areas of Scotland, or seek new dreams and opportunities overseas. This music also focuses on those who have come to Scotland for many different reasons, but often poverty, escaping war or other persecution in their own homelands, and the increasingly common factor of climate change are reasons for their sometimes perilous journeys. Short audio interviews with some of the people who have made Scotland their new home were played as part of specific songs performed tonight.
Over a twelve song set (with an interval) the music explored mostly in the first half the very physical aspects of the landscape itself in works that included “Atholl”, “Uist” and “Beinn Dorain”.
Amongst traditional songs given a modern update were some very well known works including “Red Red Rose” and “Ale is Dear”, but “Yalda” an Iranian (Persian) winter solstice festival that is celebrated around December 21st was a surprise.
To complement the musical themes of Harpland a specially commissioned light installation by Cornish artist Peter Freeman was also performed. In this installation, colour was often a representation of the landscape or story of the music, for example blue light representing sky and white light often the safety of a lighthouse light.
FitkinWall and Harpland is a fine example of what can happen if the right creative talents combine to interweave traditional and contemporary worlds of music together.
Review by Tom King © 2024
www.artsreviewsedinburgh.com
FitkinWall are to some people an unlikely musical duo where the worlds of contemporary electronica and traditional harp music meet and combine into something very individual and unique. For Harpland, composer Graham Fitkin has re-imagined traditional tunes from Scotland, Ireland, England, and further afield to allow Ruth Wall to explore new dimensions to what her harps can sound like.
Each harp played this evening, the Renaissance bray harp (with its wooden blocks at the bottom of strings that give it at times a sitar like resonance), the medieval Gaelic wire harp (clàrsach) and an electronic harp, has its own special acoustics, its own special voice. Perhaps the most unexpected sounds of all though came from the latter as it allowed Ruth Wall to explore so many acoustic possibilities in the music tonight.
There is a loose connection around all of tonight’s music and that is migration, both of the very elements of nature itself, birds, sea life, and of course people. Sometimes that migration is people being forced from their traditional lands and culture as in the Highland clearances where so many were to start new lives in new areas of Scotland, or seek new dreams and opportunities overseas. This music also focuses on those who have come to Scotland for many different reasons, but often poverty, escaping war or other persecution in their own homelands, and the increasingly common factor of climate change are reasons for their sometimes perilous journeys. Short audio interviews with some of the people who have made Scotland their new home were played as part of specific songs performed tonight.
Over a twelve song set (with an interval) the music explored mostly in the first half the very physical aspects of the landscape itself in works that included “Atholl”, “Uist” and “Beinn Dorain”.
Amongst traditional songs given a modern update were some very well known works including “Red Red Rose” and “Ale is Dear”, but “Yalda” an Iranian (Persian) winter solstice festival that is celebrated around December 21st was a surprise.
To complement the musical themes of Harpland a specially commissioned light installation by Cornish artist Peter Freeman was also performed. In this installation, colour was often a representation of the landscape or story of the music, for example blue light representing sky and white light often the safety of a lighthouse light.
FitkinWall and Harpland is a fine example of what can happen if the right creative talents combine to interweave traditional and contemporary worlds of music together.
Review by Tom King © 2024
www.artsreviewsedinburgh.com
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