FitkinWall - Harpland
- Music
Internationally renowned harp and electronica duo FitkinWall follow threads of migration, loss and longing in their new show. Ruth Wall’s explorations into Gaelic song, fiddle and pipe tunes and the history of the Scottish Highlands where she grew up have a particular focus on migration and the Highland Clearances. Graham Fitkin has created enigmatic and mesmerising new versions of these tunes for Ruth’s three harps - the sitar-like Renaissance bray harp, the beautiful medieval Gaelic wire harp (clàrsach) and the Scottish lever harp.
Ruth’s passion for the highly ornamented Scottish pibroch piping technique informs her playing style and inspires the sound world of this fascinating and unique concert. In this show FitkinWall combine ancient aural sources with modern technology creating something beautiful and at times disturbing. Dark, fragmented folk moods transform into soaring fast-paced music. The performance features a specially commissioned light installation by acclaimed artist Peter Freeman.
FitkinWall have performed around the world – from the Royal Albert Hall, BBC Proms, Aldeburgh and Glastonbury Festivals to Spiral Hall Tokyo, Aula Magna Rome and tours in Iceland, Sweden and Italy.
The harp is luminous, pastoral and urban at the same time under Wall’s fingers, she pushes the instrument to its limits ...The sound is immaculate.
...composer Graham Fitkin and harpist Ruth Wall conjured a haunting sense of longing and loss, wringing contemporary resonance from traditional tunes.
...a series of musical equations that work their way through the ears into the mind, their rhythmic and melodic themes interweaving, rising and falling. It feels by turn widescreen and microscopic. It’s subtle, uncluttered, minimal and extremely focusing… a thoroughly absorbing world of tension, suspension and release.
