Issued by New Century PR. For further information, images and interviews contact: Lesley Booth 0779 941 4474 lesley@newcenturypr.com
Media Information CD: Strange Rainbow: Catriona McKay and Alistair MacDonald Skimmerin Price ÂŁ10 (including postage) From: www.deveron-arts.com
Skimmerin the latest CD from Strange Rainbow - internationally renowned master of the clarsach (Celtic harp) Catriona McKay and electro-acoustic composer Alistair MacDonald - has been released by Deveron Arts. Skimmerin follows their earlier collaboration, invisible from land and sea and is the outcome of a musical residency in the North East town of Huntly. Strange Rainbow play in worlds where the familiar dissolves into the unfamiliar. In a very deliberate meeting of traditions McKay plays a customised clarsach with sounds processed by Alistair MacDonald's laptop, along with soundscapes drawn from the environment.
Over a period of months in 2009 Alistair MacDonald sampled the woodlands around the Aberdeenshire town of Huntly capturing their many uses and purposes. This recorded and reworked material was melded with the live woodland sound-scape and harp improvisations by McKay in a number of site-specific performances creating a series of hybrid musical textures.
For Deveron Arts the town is the venue: studio, gallery, and stage for a wide range of visual and performing arts. Artists from all over the world are invited to live and work in the town to meet with local people and exchange ideas on issues of both local and global concern. McKay and MacDonald’s residency was set within the context of an on-going debate about the future of the woodland around Huntly.
Ends