DID YOU KNOW?
“I learned tin whistle and someone gave me a wooden flute to try and then I heard a Michael Mcgoldrick tape and that completely changed everything because the music was so fluid and beautiful.
“I heard Brian Macalpine playing piano with backing fiddler Charlie Mckerron and it just blew me away.
“I’d never heard anyone play such energetic, powerful, driving piano before. The music was incredible.
“I realised folk music is about people, place, heritage and where you come from. So, I decided I would write about the River Spey that passes my home.
“I wrote a piece of music about the old whirlpool there, I wanted to write about the endangered freshwater pearl mussels, something that showed how angry I was at those who had illegally taken the pearls, so I wrote a pibroch with a dissident sounding edge to it. That was really the beginning.”
Hamish got the idea to base his new album on the Gaelic alphabet, the Ogham, after a friend gave him
Julius Caesar wrote the earliest text that describes druids in Britain. Commentarii de Bello Gallico, written around 40AD, describes local druids observing “the stars and their movements, the size of the cosmos and the earth, the world of nature, and the power and might of the immortal gods.” a mug with this alphabet on it. Hamish’s Gaelic-speaking mother told him they used to teach the language through the old names for the trees so the idea was planted, so to speak, of creating a musical portrait of all the trees on which the alphabet is based, all 18 of them.
“The idea was that I should cover all the native trees within the Cairngorms. The old tree alphabet isn’t an exact science, however, there are different versions, so I ended up making my own version in collaboration with Margaret Stewart, the Gaelic academic and singer.
“We ended up with two thirds of the album from the Gaelic alphabet and the rest of it covered other aspects of the woods like invertebrates and lichens.”
This meticulous research and authenticity is something that drives this album and makes it stand out as a work of passion and commitment. I was impressed by Hamish’s knowledge of trees and shrubs, so I asked him if he
had discovered anything about our national forests that he didn’t know before.
“Loads of stuff, particularly about land management. I realised there are as many different viewpoints on land management as there are on different trees.
“Even within Cairngorms Connect, who sponsored the album, you have the charity, the RSPB, the Government agency, Forestry and Land Scotland, and Scottish Natural Heritage.
“Then you have a number of private landlords, including Wildland Ltd who are doing some wonderful restoration work here in the Cairngorms and in the far north of Scotland.”
In a description of The Woods album is the suggestion that “the forest lives and breathes through the music.” I asked Hamish what he meant by that?
“I wanted to include forest sounds,” he said, “as well as the music, almost in harmony.
“I recorded a flute piece, late at night, by the waters of Loch Garten. It was very atmospheric, almost creepy. You’ll also hear the sound of axes and a forestry saw, the tinkling of waves on an icebound shore and various forest wind noises, including the sound of wind blowing through the strings of my mother’s harp.
“We blended these sounds into the music wherever we could – it gave a kind of authenticity to the music.
“I like the notion of trying to appeal to the person in the street who perhaps has little interest in landscape conservation work. I like the notion of helping open their eyes to the glories of our hills and woodland but not by overwhelming them with conservation jargon.
“And I firmly believe music helps me do that.”
The Woods,