BLAS Festival: Talamh Beò
With Mary Ann Kennedy & Finlay Wells
Date: Wednesday 7th September 2022
Time: 7.30pm
Place: The Oak Room, The Rockfield Centre
Age: All ages
Cost: £16 Adult, £14 Concession, £5 Under 18s, £38 Family Ticket
Tickets available in advance or on the door
Live music
Mary Ann Kennedy (lead vocals, harp), Finlay Wells (guitars), Nick Turner (technical director) and Donald MacLean (speech vocals) featuring James Graham (guest lead vocals), James Mackintosh (percussion),
Patsy Reid (violin), Seonaid Aitken (violin), Katrina Lee (viola), Alice Allen (cello), Gregor Lowrey (accordion) and Quee MacArthur (upright/electric bass).
In February 2020, the Talamh Beò collective won a commission to create a work inspired by Coigach and Assynt in the north-west Highlands. A partner project to a song and story collection, the quartet would spend time immersed in that part of the northwest before creating new music, words and stunning visuals. Six weeks later, lockdown started.
Rather than admit defeat, they decided to adapt, and the next eighteen months were spent remotely - reading, listening, zooming, and creating. Talamh Beò is a hymn to people and place. It celebrates the communities, language and culture that underpin human history. It celebrates the challenge of opposites – of long-established versus arrival, of human versus nature. And it considers the tiny fraction in time that it all represents against the timeline of some of the oldest rocks on the planet.
“Sgeul ar là-sa, an-dè ’s a-màireach”
Commissioned by the Coigach and Assynt Living Landscape project, this performance is supported by Maoin nan Ealan Gàidhlig.
Choisinn Màiri Anna NicUalraig, Finlay Wells, Nick Turner agus Dòmhnall MacIlleathain coimisean gus obair-ciùil ùr-nodha a chruthachadh, stèidhichte air ceòl, òrain, sgeulachdan agus àrainneachd na Coigich agus Asainte.
Cuide riutha bidh Seumas Greumach (seinnadair), Seumas Mac an Tòisich (beum-cheòl), Patsy Reid (fidheall), Seonaid Aitken (fidheall), Katrina Lee (viola), Alice Allen (cello), Gregor Lowrey (bogsa-ciùil) and Quee MacArtair (beus).
Thàinig an coimisean bho 'Coigach and Assynt Living Landscape Project'.
Bidh an ceòl agus na briathran a' dèanamh luaidh air àite ach cuideachd air cultur is cànan a bheireadh tuigse nas fheàrr do mhuinntir sgìrean na Coigich agus Asainte air luach an dualchais fhèin agus gur e dìleab a tha seo a tha beò, cruthachail agus a' coimhead air adhart.
Tha an tachartas seo a' faotainn taic bho Mhaoin nan Ealan Gàidhlig.