So now the workshops have been and went. We all came away singing a waulking song as sung by Maeve Mackinnon in the piece put together today by Mike Vass and Charlotte Murray. On the way home I picked up the theme music to “Chain Reaction” from the radio, which coursed in my head for half an hour or so and then, by the time I had finished bringing stuff up to the house from the van I was singing the hymn “Lord of all Hopefulness” - why I have no idea, but it tallied with my feeling of cheerfulness at the end of three days of musical risk-taking. The story-telling in today’s collaboration was quite spell-binding, leading on from various recorded reflections on experiences of the fairy world to the gradually emerging story of the disappearance of a farmer’s daughter. Angus Peter Campbell’s acting of the part of the West Coast farmer really brought the world of the piece alive. Much of our time was taken up with working out timings of recorded clips, songs and spoken word. As on all three days we ended with a makeshift but reasonably coherent recording of the piece.
This project feels like wandering out onto the ice with unsteady steps, not sure whether it was wise or safe, but at the same time seeing thereby a new vista. All three collaborations were mesmerising in their own way, and each of those ways completely different.
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