Orasaigh

I’m delighted to announce my soundwalk Orasaigh has been nominated for an Ivor Novello Award for Best Sound Art at this year’s Ivor Novello Classical Awards. Commissioned by Taigh Chearsabhagh Museum & Arts Centre, this 45-minute acousmatic soundwalk features poet Steve Ely reading his eponymous poem inspired by the landscape of the South Uist tidal island of Orasaigh. Mapped to a coastal walk around the island, this binaural work features original compositions with soundscapes captured on location in surround sound.

Orasaigh, South Uist © Michael Faint 2024

Orasaigh is a binaural acousmatic soundwalk composition developed in 2023 as part of the exhibition ‘Orasaigh‘, a collaboration between poet Steve Ely, photographer Michael Faint, and composer Duncan MacLeod. Commissioned by Taigh Chearsabhagh Museum and Arts Centre, the project draws upon the landscape around the tidal island of Orasaigh, located on the coast of South Uist at Boisdale.

Ely’s visionary poem, whilst always remaining anchored in the island, roams widely, exploring a range of themes related to Uist and the wider world – sea level rise, the crisis of the ‘sixth extinction’, history, culture, politics, conflict and class. Faint and MacLeod vividly capture the spirit of the place through their respective mediums, creating an independent yet complementary subjectivity.

The Burial Ground, Boisdale © Michael Faint 2024

As with Ely’s poem, the soundwalk is rooted in the landscape through the presence of soundscape compositions, utilising immersive field recordings captured on location. Elsewhere, material for bass clarinet and highland bagpipes, along with creative reimagining of archival sound recordings from Uist, draws upon the Isles’ rich musical heritage through Gaelic song and pibroch (an art music genre associated with the great Highland Bagpipe).

The work of the three artists combines and interacts to produce a uniquely evocative response to a rich and resonant landscape that affirms the vitality and resilience of the human spirit. The island itself becomes a dual symbol of precarity and hope in the crisis of the Anthropocene.

The work is free to listen to on-location via the geolocative sound app Echoes accessed via the QR code below.

Credits

Poem: Steve Ely
Narration: Steve Ely
Music & Soundscape compositions: Duncan MacLeod
Bass Clarinet: Charlotte Jolly
Environmental field recordings: Juraj Fajnor & Duncan MacLeod
Commissioned by Taigh Chearsabhagh Museum & Arts Centre, with funds from the Arts and Humanities Research Council.