Fringe 2024 Catriona Price & Friends Edinburgh New Town Church 16 August Review
Catriona Price & Friends at Edinburgh New Town Church this afternoon was the last of three concerts at this year’s Fringe (the previous two were at other venues). Music for this performance, (apart from a few surprises this afternoon) comes from Catriona’s debut album Hert (Orcadian Scots for Heart), and is a celebration of the musical, spoken and written word of her home on Orkney.
I first reviewed this music last year at The Hub as part of the Edinburgh International Festival, so it was interesting to see how everything transferred to a different performance space and a slightly different line-up of musicians.
“Hert” as a musical concept is steeped in the tradition of Orkney, and that almost elemental connection that the people have with the land, air and sea around them. “Storms” by poet Margaret Tait was a fine example of Catriona’s ability to seamlessly merge words and music together this afternoon.
At the same time, music and words were also looking forward as to what changing energy production and climate change could mean for Orkney. If you want to harvest the power of the winds and the waves, then Orkney is one place to be and “Energy at the End of the World”, with music by Catriona Price and inspired by the work of Laura Watts provided one such scenario. A far darker scenario though came from the poem “If” by Pam Beasant, and the fragility of Orkney and its eco system are laid bare in this prophesy of doom and sea waters rising due to climate change.
Catriona Price obviously has a wide interest in music and there is no perceived hierarchy here (as it should be) to any musical style or genre, as classical, folk, pop, rock and jazz seamlessly interweave with one another.
“Hert” is an ambitious project as a studio album, and performing this work live needs musicians who share Catriona’s ability to move effortlessly between styles. Today Catriona’s friends were Seonaid Aitken (violin and vocals), Sarah Leonard (viola), Su-a Lee (cello), Sarah Hayes (flutes and vocals), Esther Swift (harp and vocals), Fergus McCreadie (piano), Andrew Robb (double bass) and Joni Strugo (drums).
Review by Tom King © 2024
www.artsreviewsedinburgh.com
I first reviewed this music last year at The Hub as part of the Edinburgh International Festival, so it was interesting to see how everything transferred to a different performance space and a slightly different line-up of musicians.
“Hert” as a musical concept is steeped in the tradition of Orkney, and that almost elemental connection that the people have with the land, air and sea around them. “Storms” by poet Margaret Tait was a fine example of Catriona’s ability to seamlessly merge words and music together this afternoon.
At the same time, music and words were also looking forward as to what changing energy production and climate change could mean for Orkney. If you want to harvest the power of the winds and the waves, then Orkney is one place to be and “Energy at the End of the World”, with music by Catriona Price and inspired by the work of Laura Watts provided one such scenario. A far darker scenario though came from the poem “If” by Pam Beasant, and the fragility of Orkney and its eco system are laid bare in this prophesy of doom and sea waters rising due to climate change.
Catriona Price obviously has a wide interest in music and there is no perceived hierarchy here (as it should be) to any musical style or genre, as classical, folk, pop, rock and jazz seamlessly interweave with one another.
“Hert” is an ambitious project as a studio album, and performing this work live needs musicians who share Catriona’s ability to move effortlessly between styles. Today Catriona’s friends were Seonaid Aitken (violin and vocals), Sarah Leonard (viola), Su-a Lee (cello), Sarah Hayes (flutes and vocals), Esther Swift (harp and vocals), Fergus McCreadie (piano), Andrew Robb (double bass) and Joni Strugo (drums).
Review by Tom King © 2024
www.artsreviewsedinburgh.com