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CHRIS STOUT & CATRIONA MCKAY (WITH THE SCOTTISH ENSEMBLE
& SALLY BEAMISH) - Seavaigers

CHRIS STOUT & CATRIONA MCKAY (WITH THE SCOTTISH ENSEMBLE & SALLY BEAMISH) - Seavaigers
Private Label MSM002CD

This release combines Seavaigers (Seafarers), a string concerto composed by Sally Beamish, with partner piece Moder Dy (Mother Wave), also in three movements, written by fiddler Chris Stout and harper Catriona McKay and recorded by them with the string orchestra, The Scottish Ensemble, in a commissioned collaborative venture deliberately featuring plentiful wave currents of improvisation.

Aiming ‘to create music which reflects the anticipation, fear, comradeship and adventure of sea voyaging’, it is certainly rich in moods and movement in its quest to evoke the capricious and challenging nature of marine passage. The unsettling and tempestuous turbulences of Storm are eventually resolved, via the enticing beauty and gentle swells of Lament and after several further exhilarating movements, by the harmonic homeward ply of Haven. Similarly expansive, Moder Dy seeks musical equivalence to the maritime experience of recognising and navigating the ineluctable underlying tow of the currents around the island of Foula running towards Shetland.

Renowned for their exploratory sense of adventure in extending their folk roots and identities, these deep waters are well suited to Chris and Catriona’s swashbuckling approach and array of technique. Contrapuntal sophistication abounds, appropriately conjuring eddying swirl, unsettling squall and edgy maelstrom. Then, often hoving into view, come Chris’ typically sinuous, shimmering and soaring melodies, fluent and expressive, over the harp’s rhythmic detail, whether pulsing surges or intricate ripples. Intense, dynamic, restless and complex, this is an ambitious and rewarding sequence of passages well befitting its theme and skilfully deploying the orchestra to add depth and rich detail to both the surface currents and undertow.

www.mckaystoutmusic.co.uk

Kevin T. Ward


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This album was reviewed in Issue 104 of The Living Tradition magazine.