Guitarist David Allison with the voice of Norman Gillies accompanying films from the Scottish Screen Archive and Edinburgh filmakers Ewan and Alastair Meldrum.
Influences
Daniel Lanois, Robert Fripp, John Martyn, Pierre Bensusan, Laurie Anderson
A Poignant Look Back at the Evacuation of St. Kilda Island
By CATHOLINE BUTLER
Celtic Connection Vancouver
The St. Kilda Tapes is deeply moving footage of the evacuation on August 29, 1930, of the last 36 inhabitants of Scotland's St. Kilda Island.. The Scottish Screen Archives has preserved the footage that was shot during this memorable departure.
The St. Kilda Tapes uses this material and the voice of Norman Gillies who participated in the evacuation as a five-year-old boy. The showing of the tapes was accompanied by the excellent music of David Allison, whose music really set the tone for life on the island and the sad and poignant evacuation of the island. How often their thoughts must have returned to that little school, their playmates, and life on the island.
Once again, it poses the timeless question: When you are forced or choose to leave your home, when does your journey finally stop?
"The St Kilda Tapes" is a solo sister project to"The Island Tapes". Alongside live music performed on guitar, zither, ukulele and sampler, the show explores the themes of emmigration and home through the experiences and thoughts of Norman Gillies, who was evacuated from St Kilda in 1930 aged five.
When you are forced or you choose to leave your home where does your journey stop? How do you know when you've arrived at your ultimate destination, and how do you balance what you have left behind with what you discover on your journey?
Alongside multimedia material and recorded memories of Norman Gillies are the Scottish Screen Archive films "St Kilda - Britain's Loneliest Isle" and "A New Way to a New World".
The latest evolution of the show was premiered at the Barbican in London and recently toured Canada.
Into looping technology and experimenting with wonderful instruments like the concert zither, turkish saz and the arabic oud, David is also mad about ukuleles.
Here's a spot of a zither bought for 50 euros at a german flea market.
Audiences from Hollywood in California to Rostov-on-Don in Russia and from Berlin to Cape Town have warmed to his unique approach to making music.
Nearer home David has performed at festivals such as Glasgow's Celtic Connections, the Edinburgh Fringe, and the International Guitar Festival of Great Britain, as well as appearances on radio and television.
The Island Tapes is now available as a CD-DVD double pack for
£16.99 GBP including worldwide post and packing. It features the full soundtrack as an audio CD and all six "Island Tapes" films with soundtrack on the DVD, plus extra features including interviews, live concert footage and tour blog. With more than 70 minutes of amazing music on the audio CD and 150 minutes of extraordinary video footage on the DVD, “The Island Tapes” really is a must-see, must-hear package
"This is a very important recording." - Living Tradition Magazine'
"A magical musical tour "- Stornoway Gazette
The doublesided DVD is 16:9 widescreen, region-free, with UK PAL on one side and North American NTSC format on the other.
Click below to order by credit or debit card. (You don't need a Paypal account)
You can also order through http://www.theislandtapes.com/cd_dvd.html
DOWNLOAD
The soundtrack to "The Island Tapes" is also now available as a download from iTunes. You can also find it at Napster, Rhapsody and Amazon mp3 (United States only)
