📷 Jenny by Amanda Jackson Photography
Kirkwall Harbour by Alan Guthrie Photography
NEW RELEASE ALBUM AND TUNEBOOK
As I sit here looking out across Orkney’s lush fertile fields, watching the birds flying effortlessly around the breaking sunlight I think about how lucky I am to be at home following many years travelling the world as a touring professional musician.
For over three decades, I performed as one half of the duo ‘The Wrigley Sisters’ with my twin, Hazel, recording over a dozen albums, undertaking three world tours, visiting 47 countries (including 15 trans-Atlantic trips) and appearing in countless television and radio productions. Together, we also ran Kirkwall’s iconic Reel – a music school, café/bar, music shop, concert venue and exhibition space – for 16 years until Covid forced its closure.
📷 The Reel, Kirkwall by Tom O’Brien Photography
Orkney, my creative centre, is located approximately 15 miles off the north coast of Scotland. It is an archipelago of more than 70 islands and has, throughout history, been a cultural throughfare, especially for sea travellers; the recent discovery of the 5500-year-old Ness of Brodgar complex, used for ceremonies and rituals; the natural harbour of Scapa Flow, home to the Vikings and subsequently the British Grand Fleet during two world wars. During the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries the nearby harbour town of Stromness, birthplace of influential twentieth century Orcadian poet, George Mackay Brown, served as the last port of call before the long trip across the Atlantic for seafarers including Captain James Cook and Sir John Franklin. Now an integral part in the development of diverse and successful renewable energy sources, being home to the European Marine Energy Centre (EMEC) Ltd – the world’s first and leading facility for demonstrating and testing wave and tidal energy converters, Orkney, with the sea and the wind, coupled with ancient history and roots is a beautiful place for artists, creativity, and worldwide cultural cross-stitching melodies.
I feel honoured and delighted to be asked by the Traditional Music Forum to share my latest musical adventure with you; the creation of my brand-new release ‘Catch the Rhythmic Orkney Tide and Ride’ album and music book.
It has been quite a journey, one that began three and half years ago. I was extremely fortunate to be chosen in 2021 by music charity Sound and Music, London as one of six NEW VOICES artists selected out of over 400 UK wide applicants. They offered support across 18 months for me to create a new compositional piece work. I could compose whatever I wanted, and they would support me. “Think big”, said my Creative Advisor Nicole – that is a dangerous thing to say to someone creatively minded. I thought about going down the ‘Techno fiddle’ route but decided that writing something centred on fiddle music would be more for me!
My plan was to create a composition based on the traditional music of Orkney, highlighting the importance of the rhythm in the music not only in the playing styles but also in the local dialect and mannerisms of Orkney.
Sound and Music encouraged me to think about my inspirations and ultimately it involved exploring a brand-new medium, using local audio samples to inspire percussive ideas within the composition. There are stories of people dancing to anything in Orkney! I began looking for recordings of any ordinary Orkney sounds and voices e.g., cackling women, the auction mart, the buzz of the pre-concert audience, the bustle of the pier as the boat comes in, sport being played, children playing, gossips and laughing. Despite there being a large archive of this audio material in existence I really struggled to locate these sounds online. What I was looking for is seemingly difficult to find or has not yet been digitised. This got me thinking; could a special digital sound library, specific to a place and a time, created by artists be useful for others – I cannot be the first to search for these sounds?
📷 Jennifer Wrigley by Sean Purser Photography
The IDENTITY INSPIRATION MEMORIES AUDIO PLATFORM or iiMap, supported by an additional Sound and Music Dimensions Award, is a collaboration with photographer Keith Allardyce (RIP), Orkney Museums, National Library of Scotland, Orkney Library and Archives and Orkney Voices, Royal Conservatoire of Scotland and many others. It aims to collect memories and ordinary familiar sounds specific to people and place, highlighting dialects and mannerisms that characterise roots and converting those creative influences into something digital that can be shared with others. You can learn more by visiting www.iiMap.co.uk
📷 iiMap photo of Children in Stromness by Keith Allardyce Photography
📷 Keith Allardyce by Keith Allardyce Photography
I think the traditional music of the fiddle (aka violin) is like your accent. When you grow up sitting next to your forefathers and playing music there is a certain rhythm and manner in their voice. Natives of Orkney tend to speak quite quietly and softly with their fun staccato accent bearing a recognisably Scandinavian style lilt. Their fiddling style similarly uses a short, light, distinctive bowing technique which gives the music an understated simple lift and assured dance. The focus being always on the simplicity of the melody which traditionally is what people danced to. A traditional tune was one you could hum, was memorable and catchy and passed on aurally. Perhaps less to do with the notes and more to do with the rhythmic voice and personality of the player, unique to different traditions of the world.
As I grew up being inspired by my musical pals, I too wanted to inspire others, irrespective of the cleanliness of the production and quality of the playing, making it real and rooted, to understand and appreciate the old voices and make them new again. These are stories without words.
As an artist I continue to strive to broaden my musical horizons, explore making music with new people whilst retaining Orkney’s real culture, the people, their generosity, their softly spoken stories, their sense of humour, their tunes, their pride, and self-sufficiency. This is something that cannot be learnt from a book or from the internet but only by connecting socially with older players and is something that I fear may be happening less and less in the modern world. To me traditional music is all about rhythm, voices and having faith in the melody/words. I feel so very lucky to have been steeped in the aural tradition from a young age.
In recent years traditional music has become more fashionable again, but often the focus is given to providing a groove under the melody which can be so overpowering that the melody is largely lost. Traditionally, the actual tune and its dance intrinsically connected the listener to react to the rhythmic push and pull of the notes and not the groove underneath. This is something I feel is incredibly important not to lose. Providing a sympathetic accompaniment to these beautiful simple melodies is much harder than one might expect.
So, after 18 months of creativity and preparation the result was a live performance staged at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland in March 2023. Combining my Associate Artist role at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland (RCS) with the New Voices award from Sound and Music.
Catch the Rhythmic Orkney Tide and Ride – my first solo venture – tells a progressive story based on a journey to Orkney. I wanted the four movements to represent our modern-day struggle in life for material goods over and above a safe home/place for us all to live. This simpler way of life, and the sense of community that traditional music encapsulates, has been the foundation of our race for thousands of years. Current world affairs remind us daily how lucky we are to have the solidity of the land around us.
📷 Catch the Rhythmic Orkney Tide and Ride performers and crew. Taken at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland Chandler Studio in March 2023. By Sean Purser Photography.
In addition to fourteen RCS music students, the live performance captured on the new album featured singer Alyth McCormack, multi-BBC award winning guitarist and accordionist Tim Edey, former BBC Folk on Two winner and past Riverdance band member, accordionist Luke Daniels, Scottish Borders pianist Harris Playfair, and Orcadian pianist Laurence Wilson.
📷 From left to right: Tim Edey, Eleanor Dunsdon, Calum MacKinnon, Gregor Black, Jessica Fraser, Luke Daniels, Jennifer Wrigley, Rachel Henderson and Kristina Leesik. Photo by Sean Purser Photography.
The performance also included internationally acclaimed championship dancer, teacher and choreographer, Jane Douglas, along with the Fèis Lochabair Scottish Step Dancers, who brought an exciting rhythmic and energetic element to the new composition. Third-year RCS student and lighting designer, Pippa Reilly, led the partnering tech team and brought her own special creative magic to the show.
📷 Fèis Lochabair Scottish Step Dancers by Sean Purser Photography
Firstly, we travel across the Gaelic speaking Highlands, strathspeys, mountains and on to the moorlands of Caithness with the air ‘’The Four Bridges Crossing’ (The Forth, Kessock, Cromarty and Dornoch Bridges) followed by the march ‘The Jellico Express’, (during the war Admiral Jellico’s train carried troops from the south of England to Orkney) a strathspey ‘The Berridale Crawl’ (a notorious cliff top climb on the A9) and reel ‘The Risky Picnic’ (a sandy soft escape bed designed for trucks looks like a nice place for a cuppa!) Finally, we ride ‘The Pentland Firth Swing’ (hold on, the boat across the Firth might get a bit rough) which highlights the swing jazz Harlem style piano and guitar playing which was famously carried to the Northern Isles via the short-wave radio in the 1920’s. We journey through the powerful tidal waters of the notorious Pentland Firth which was once described in renewable energy terms as the ‘Saudi Arabia of the North’ and on past the ‘Merry Men of Mey’ tidal race. As we round the Old Man of Hoy cliff stack, the two lighthouses of Hoy High and Hoy Low on the island of Graemsay will guide us safely into harbour.
📷 Harris Playfair by Sean Purser Photography
📷 From left to right: Rachel Henderson, Rory Carter, Kristina Leesik, Ruby Whitaker, Oisin McCann and Josiah Duhlstine. Photo by Sean Purser Photography.
The second movement ‘Reach for the Slip’ is composed for our arrival in Orkney, we survived the boat journey and are grateful for the solid ground in which to stand. Greeted by welcoming islanders, helping hands are offered/reach out to help us climb ashore. We look around in relief and in awe at the beauty of this ancient new place with its green, lush, fertile, uninterrupted expanse of blue skies and sea. The piece highlights the melodic influence of the Norse fiddle style melodies.
📷 Tim Edey by Sean Purser Photography
📷 Alyth McCormack by Sean Purser Photography
The third track is a folk song encompassing the message of the whole piece and a bringing together of cultures based on respect, friendship and sharing. ‘Beyond the Merry Men of Mey’ is a song that includes the pipe melody ‘Air for Arne’ which I composed for the late Orcadian piper Arne Flett who was full of stories and ‘March for Magnus’ for my son. This cultural convergence is represented by the alignment of the two lighthouses “Hoy High and Hoy Low” and featured in the show a luminous bioluminescence phenomenon seen on the water known as Milky Seas or Mareel. Even after dark when there is no power, the music and dancing will continue.
📷 Laurence Wilson by Sean Purser Photography
The final track celebrates the hall/dance. The community, young and old come together to dance. The first tune in the set ‘The Laughing Barn Dance’ (you should hear laughter) highlights the influence in Orkney of the accordion music of William Hannah, from Blackburn, who was one of Jimmy Shand’s biggest influences. It features a special old accordion, similar in design to William Hannah’s early 1920’s box, which went on to revolutionise the accordion in Scotland. Hannah and Shand had close connections with Orkney and Shand even lived in Orkney for a short time. Featuring the driving and rhythmic traditional Orkney piano accompaniment this tune pays homage to the unique Orkney Barn Dances and showcased a special newly commissioned piece of choreography by Jane Douglas which in true Orkney style brings together dancing influences from all around the world. The second tune in the set celebrates the east coast Scottish fiddle influence of Scott Skinner; a Scottish champion fiddler, dancer and showman, well known for his virtuosic variations. ‘The Midgie Minuet’ is an agitated high-brow dance usually performed when the ‘Midgees’ are biting! Finally, everyone is brought together for a “dance and tune off” the reel ‘Tackity Boots’ (an Orcadian dancer whose metal stud boots caused sparks to fly on the flag floor). Two specially made dancing ‘Limberjack Dolls’ represented Scott Skinner and Jimmy Shand.
📷 Alex Wotherspoon with the specially commissioned Limberjack dolls of Jimmy Shand and Noah Scott with Scott Skinner Scott. Photo by Sean Purser Photography.
The performance and ultimately the album is a hugely important project for me in so many ways. Not only is it my first solo venture, but it also comes at a time when the world is experiencing so much discord and conflict, with attitudes towards migration a particular concern to me. Orkney has, for thousands of years, been a place where folk have travelled to, and transitioned through, so I wanted to create a work that told the story of a hopeful journey, with a suite reflecting the welcoming and optimistic nature of our island’s community, and a simpler, kinder way of life.
📷 by Sean Purser Photography
I’m very grateful to everyone who contributed their talents, time and energy to make this project possible. I want to especially thank all the musicians who took part in the original performance in Glasgow and made it such an unforgettable event. I’m really excited to be sharing Catch the Rhythmic Orkney Tide and Ride with the world and I hope everyone enjoys travelling to Orkney with me!
An accompanying Catch the Rhythmic Orkney Tide and Ride music book, available to buy, has arrangements for fiddle, with harmonies, bowings, ornaments and chords, plus live photos from the RCS show. Available to purchase now by mail order from my website and on all major streaming platforms.