Delighted that the RSPB will be hosting Sonja Heyer and my Orkney poetry/sound walk, now called 'Rewilding', as part of the Orkney Nature Festival 14th May-21st May, 2023. You can listen in person walking round the Ring of Brodgar and along the path through the RSPB Reserve or listen online from wherever you are.
Due to the wind in Orkney the idea of listening through umbrellas has been jettisoned! Participants will listen through their own headphones.
Much of the sound work is natural sound recordings (wind, water, birdsong) taken on site or throughout Orkney but we now have some musical additions to the final work including percussive effects by Sonja. Also there is an extract from 'Farewell to Stromness' by Peter Maxwell Davis to a poem warning of the demise of the lapwing, curlews etc. This will have particular resonance to Orcadians and others who know that 'Max' wrote this to protest against proposed uranium mining (1980) that would destroy Stromness - the heavy beat suggests the villagers/refugees leaving their homes. I felt it beautifully fits the potential extinction of various birds and other species on the A List at Brodgar. Thankfully, Stromness was saved, as I hope birds on the endangered list will be too.
I'm also delighted that local Orcadian, Lucy Alsop, soprano, agreed to sing some verses of 'Ariel's Song' ('where the bees sucks... ' words from Shakespeare's 'The Tempest', music by Thomas Arne) which meld beautifully with a poem about the Great Yellow Bumble Bee (also in danger of extinction.) We've also inserted recordings of Orcadian poet, Ingrid Leonard, pronouncing the Orcadian dialect words for birds. Thanks therefore to my friends, and singer/poets, Lucy and Ingrid.
Details of the event will shortly appear on the festival website... here is a wee promo of us doing the research to whet your appetite.
Click on Rewilding research and recording.
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