Beg & borrow : sharing music shared by the Scottish & Irish traditions
Battlefield Band
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Reviews (3)
The observer
d. 10. Nov. 2013
By
By
Neil Spencer
d. 10. Nov. 2013
"The Scots singer Alasdair Roberts continues his singular path with an eighth outing that's a collaboration with the poet Robin Robertson. Their focus is the remote Hebridean archipelago of St Kilda, abandoned since the 1930s, with verse set to bare bones backings of guitar, bass, fiddle and harp. Recorded live, it has the sonic sophistication of a dusty church hall, yet its evocation of bleak seascapes and harsh lives is transportative".
Folk radio UK
d. 11. Nov. 2013
By
By
Simon Holland
d. 11. Nov. 2013
"A wonderful record that does the job of building up the unique setting for its story, an album that very specifically has its place. The skill is the way that the songs and Robin's poems and lyrics create a mental landscape that is all but tangible. This may be one of Alasdair's boldest collaborations and may well also be one of his best".
fRoots
2014 Jan/Feb
By
By
Colin Irwin
2014 Jan/Feb
"Hirta Songs is a collaboration with the Scottish poet Robin Robertson, in which they construct a mournful and darkly mystical suite of songs to depict the very human experiences which led to the small community of St Kilda - the most remote outpost in the British Isles off the north west coast of Scotland - finally being evacuated in 1930 ... The story of life there is not a pretty one, battling with superstitions, angry elements and ultimately survival ... Alasdair's ghostly voice is the perfect foil for Robertson's evocative words while guitar, bass, fiddle and harp - played with tragic beauty by Corrina Hewat - dangle around them in lo-fi manner, setting a souitably bleak, melancholic backdrop. It's an album that vividly evokes nature at its most unforgiving and it has such strongly visual presence that the end feels like you've actually just sat through an unusually moving movie".