Between the Ears: An Orkney Tapestry

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An Orkney Tapestry

BBC Radio 3 - Between the Ears, An Orkney Tapestry

Erland Cooper and Daniel Pioro pay tribute to Orkney poet George Mackay Brown.

Orcadian composer Erland Cooper and violinist Daniel Pioro explore neolithic cairns and iron age brochs in a musical tribute to Orkney's late great poet George Mackay Brown.

George Mackay Brown was one of Scotland's most important 20th-century poets, who also wrote novels, plays and short stories steeped in the rich history and myths of Orkney. 

Orcadian composer Erland Cooper grew up on the same street, just a few doors down, until the poet's death in 1996. To mark Mackay Brown's centenary, Erland returns to Stromness with acclaimed violinist Daniel Pioro. They journey over hilly moorland on the island of Hoy and to Rousay, an island known as the Egypt of the North. With Mackay Brown's book An Orkney Tapestry as their guide, they perform in a megalithic rock-cut tomb, shelter from gale-force storms against bothy walls with sheep, hike to an iron age broch, and discover an audience of fiddle-loving seals, culminating in a secret tape-planting ceremony.

George Mackay Brown famously rarely left the islands. But he enjoyed an international reputation, founded the St Magnus festival, and collaborated often with composer Peter Maxwell Davies. His words also inspired Erland’s recent trilogy of records: "The essence of Orkney's magic is silence, loneliness, and the deep marvellous rhythms of sea and land, darkness and light". And for the centenary, Erland has also recorded a three-part orchestral movement with Daniel Pioro and Studio Collective at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland. As an experiment, and collaboration with the landscape itself, all digital recorded files were deleted and the only recording exists on a reel-to-reel tape. Erland will bury this during the trip in an undisclosed location, to be left for three years to decompose... unless someone else finds it first. 

With thanks to the George Mackay Brown estate, Polygon Press, and Sue MacGregor.
 
Producer: Victoria Ferran
Exec Producer: Sara Jane Hall
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