Day #10 - travel South

The plane is more or less on schedule, and so come 9.15am we are tucked into a coffee shop in Lerwick with our second breakfast. The planes get progressively larger and when we get to the BA flight from Glasgow to Heathrow we definitely feel struck by the numbers of people!
After 3 smooth flights we only hit bumps with London transport - cancellations on the Elizabeth Line - but home by mid evening.

What a wonderful creative week in Fair Isle - and so many thank yous due!

to Marie for the inspiration and the giant knitting; Eileen for all the organising and hospitality (Pavlovextravaganza!); our generous hosts at Kenaby and Lower Stoneybrek; Jonathan for allowing us to fill the school week with music, art and random bits of history and maths; the schoolchildren for being so quick on all the uptakes and generally brilliant; the community of Fair Isle and all the visitors who joined us, made cyanotypes, came along to the concert, percussed impressively and increased the fun!

Shetland Blues was made in splendid collaboration with the communities of Bigton and Fair Isle - and we’re looking forward to creating the next one!

A huge thank you to our funders, without which this project would not have happened:

Cockaigne Fund, administered by Foundation Scotland
Hope Scott Trust
Hugh Fraser Foundation
Golsoncott Foundation
The National Lottery Community Fund
The Maple Trust
The Radcliffe Trust
Shetland Community Benefit Fund

…and a shout out to Jim’s Garage for the rental car at a subsidised rate. Thanks Sharon for being all over the logistics of the ins and outs (and for coming to the concert) - appreciated!

Day #9 - open-to-all rehearsal & a concert

At 2pm we gather at the Hall to rehearse with any who want to join us - which turns out to be Neil on guitar and Pat, Eileen, Grace (who has been in CHROMA projects before when she was in the primary school, now at Anderson High and home for the weekend), Phil (here on his holidays) and Abi (WOOFing from New York) on vocals. We workshop Summertime, having fun with harmonies to warm up, then rehearse Moon River making it ready to perform later. After that the ensemble run through the children’s pieces, and the rest of the programme.

open-to-all rehearsal

Neil joining us on guitar

While they rehearse I arrange the cyanotypes and artworks for an exhibition of the children’s work to accompany the concert - Marie’s giant knitted motif has already been hung on the wall (wooden brackets and mounting courtesy of Ian) and the end result looks great.

Brand new piece of textile art by Marie Bruhat - made with the assistance of the children

Cyanotypes

the children’s Lapis Lazuli artworks in blues and gold

A packed Hall

The best Kenaby pizza for tea, then a packed Hall for our concert. It’s a wonderful turnout that includes pretty much every Fair Isle resident (there are currently about 55 living on the island - this week a few are away on fire crew training etc) , several from the Bird Observatory, and various other visiting friends.

We start with the world premieres of the pieces by our young composers - who take their bow afterwards. The programme of blues, jazz and classical with a theme of blue reaches a high point when Stu introduces “the brand new International Fair Isle Choir”, and our friends join us on stage to perform Moon River. It sounds like seasoned rep rather than something we knocked together that afternoon!

Then comes the New Orleans Funk audience drum kit moment - Stu splits the audience into three and the children lead their sections in “boots and cats”, “boom boom boom chikki chikki” and “donkey donkey kong” (which we had done with the children as part of their daily warm ups). When the percussion section happens in the piece they get so into their groove they continue as the band come back in, and carried on with their riffs right to the end. To use Ian’s word it was GLEEFULL!

Post-gig catchups all round - we’ve been coming to Fair Isle since 2002 so there are many old friends to hug and chat with - then we head to Houll for the post-gig drinks and wind-down. Neil picks up the guitar and we have bonus songs - some sung by Neil and Eileen, some we all join in with. It’s a beautiful thing to be with our friends old and new like this - and a very fitting way to round off the evening.

Father and daughter singing a song written by Neil

Such a fine way to round off the evening

Day #8 - composer choices, giant knitting & grid miniatures

We start the session with singing and beginner beatboxing to warm up.
After only 4 days the children have completed their compositions. This morning we sit down to rehearse them on the instruments, with consultation with each young composer regarding what dynamics, speed and colour should be given to their works. Some of the alternatives are quite subtle, but their listening is excellent and they remain engaged through the fine-tuning of each work (2 hours of complete focus!) - equally interested in their classmates’ works as their own. They all have more confidence in their musical instincts and opinions - which is great to see.

Each of the children has made us a thank you card - Jonathan takes a group photo of us all saying “CHROMA”.

Marie returns in the afternoon to complete the giant knitting motif - the children take turns to assist her, with the ones not knitting coming to the art table. Some have a go at the grid miniatures I’d set up, and some doodle with paint.

Ander’s grid miniatures

Hetty

Luca

Day #8 - melodies, lapis lazuli & giant knitting

After the warm up, music morning in the school started with listening back to the percussion and basslines, adding some flourishes, then making some choices about which instrument should play the bassline and the flourishes - the instrument left over will play the melody. Stu is making Dorico files with the children’s musical choices and instructions (which beat of the bar the melody starts on, for example) which will become notation and a sound file to give the chldren.

choosing which instrument plays which line

After this I show the children a piece of lapis lazuli (kindly brought in by Pat Thomson) and explained the history of its use for blue pigment. Along the way we also covered blue pigment from a special snail and the indigo plant.
The painting exercise that followed involved liberal use of blue with some gold - I didn’t give them specific instructions on how to make their lapis lazuli paintings, and the results were amazing and varied!

Khalicee’s lapis lazuli painting

Teddy

After lunch Marie Burhat came in to start the giant knitting with the children. She tasked the older boys with working out the maths of how much yarn was needed for the number of stitches in the pattern, and the younger children with re-rolling her giant yarn ball so the darker blues were at the start of it.
Then she sat down with the giant knitting needles specially made by Ian Best, and the giant knitting began.

making a start on the giant knitting

After this CHROMA rehearsed, and we rounded off the day round at Houll with a splendid lamb stew and pavlova made by Eileen Thomson.

rehearsal (lapis lazuli paintings drying, cyanotypes now dry)

Day #7 - blue scales, basslines, foraging & cyanotypes

For music morning after the warm up we started with singing - scales, major and minor chords, 7th and 9th chords, triads (including major and minor). Then got the bells out and rang the 12 bar blues - quite tricky to remember which number you’re on, was rather hilarious, but we got there eventually!

warm up (with yesterday’s experiments in blue watercolours in foreground)

Stu had prepared the children’s drum patterns from yesterday using Dorico, and played these back to them - they sounded great.

The next element to compose is their basslines, so they sat down to the squared sheets again to create those.

working on basslines

After lunch in our open-to-all session we meet at Muckle Urigeo to forage for items to create cyanotypes. All sorts ended up in the foraging bag - seaweed, sea glass, shells, leaves, sticks… we took everything back to the Hall and each person designed their cyanotype ready to set out in the sun. 15 minutes later we start rinsing the papers under water to see what we have created. Some amazing prints. Thanks to the school, Nick, Christine, Suzy, Katy and Alice for joining us.

foraging at Muckle Urigeo

cyanotypes drying

After we’ve tidied up the Hall we head to the north of the isle for a group walk - it’s still lovely weather, so our cameras were kept busy capturing the landscapes. Stunning.

team CHROMA - Chihiro, Claire, Jo, Stu and Jess in front of the North Lighthouse

Day #6 - rhythms and cyanotypes

We start the morning with rhythm games and set up percussion sections - first working with making sounds with our mouths then producing those sounds on our instruments. Stu explains how we will work these into notation as the children compose their blues pieces.

clapping rhythms

The children then sat down to writing their own rhythm section for percussion using graph paper marked up with the different elements of a drumkit. They worked to 4 beats split in to 16, using fractions to create simple rhythms, cross rhythms, complex rhythms and syncopation. The marked up graph papers look a little like the graph papers used to create patterns for Fair Isle knitting…

After lunch I give the children a “tour of blue places”, including the mareel bioluminescence that happens in Shetland, the blue lagoon in Iceland, blue ice caves in Argentina, towns painted blue, blue domes of Greece and the blue decorative tiles of Samarkand (they were very interested in the Silk Road, so we talked about that for a bit).
Then we move on to Anna Atkins (1799–1871) and her pioneering use of cyanotypes to record botanicals and seaweed, publishing the first book of photographs in 1843. We are foraging on the shore tomorrow, but to have a practice we chose items to set up for sunprints - some were plants foraged from outside, some used the Matisse-inspired cutouts I’d brought and one used a pair of scissors.
While the prints are developing in the sun we do some watercolour exercises using only the colour blue. They use a watercolour paper palette to create gradients of blue and on their second sheet of watercolour paper start with a circle of water wash, then slowly add pigment to it to build up a circular pattern.

Teddy’s looks like a galaxy!

Some catching up with friends over kitchen tables, and a full team dinner at Kenaby, cooked by Jess.

Day #5 - arriving in Fair Isle

A bright and early start leaving Bigton at 6.15am to check in at Tingwall airport at 7am, wheels up in the islander plane at 8am, Fair Isle airstrip by 8.30am.

on the islander plane

Breakfast then gathering of things, soup for lunch, then walk up to the Hall under a clear blue sky to meet Marie and set up at 1.30pm. We arrange her textile art piece 27 Shetland Blues on the floor (so the children can handle it), set up the yarn cone board and the coloured yarn sticks.

Principal teacher Jonathan brings the children through from school at 2pm - we serenade their entrance with Moon River. Jonathan invites the children to tell us all the names of blue they can think of (they manage 13 colours) and I introduce the idea for the project, inspired by Marie’s giant knitting piece 27 Shetland Blues - then hand over to Marie to describe how she made that piece. The children lift 27 Shetland Blues and observe how very heavy it is - then they get under it like it’s the chic-est weighted blanked ever.

Marie tells the story of 27 Shetland Blues

After this the children settle into sitting on 27 Shetland Blues, for the introductions to the violin, the bassoon, the clarinet and the piano.

introductions to instruments

After this Marie asks the children to look at the coloured yarn sticks, and choose their favourite colours of blue, then reads them the line of poetry for their chosen colours as written by Joan Lennon. (Joan has come to Fair Isle many times - and was so taken by Marie’s coloured yarn sticks that she wrote a line of poetry for each colour).

Marie’s yarn sticks

Stu and I walk back to Kenaby in glorious sunshine - it’s so good to be back.

Back at hosts - Jess tunes the piano at Kenaby and does some practice. Ian comes back from the boat and prepares lobster for supper…

Day #4 - wind-down

A sunny chillout Sunday! Excellent weather for exploring Sumburgh Head and a walk to St Ninian’s tombolo. In yet another happy coincidence Neil Georgson is in Shetland - he came to our concert and made plans with old pal Chihiro so she spent the afternoon meeting lambs and hanging out on his parents’ farm in Aith. Neil is giving a concert at Mareel on 26 September (poster below).

We rounded the day off feasting with our hosts - Jo, Jess and Chihiro celebrating friendships made at North Exnaboe with Winnie and Joe, and Stu and I hanging out with our Bigton family Alice, Jonathan, Ruben, Dylan and Elska at Audrey’s. Audrey cooked the most enormous salmon en croute and very successfully experimented with an almond croissant (leftovers) and butter pudding. Delicious.

Jo, Jess, Winnie and Chihiro at Sumburgh Head

Stu and Jo at St Ninian’s

Jo and Jess at St Ninian’s

Day #3 - Shetland Youth Orchestra and Hymhus Concert

A splendid session with the Shetland Youth Orchestra at Mareel Lerwick - their new home (complete with a storage room for their instruments). It was their first Saturday back after the Summer holidays, with most of the orchestra sightreading the chosen piece New Orleans Funk at the start of the session.
Stuart conducted, whilst Chihiro, Jess and Jo sat in the orchestra. It was amazing to watch these talented young musicians absorb every note and elevate their playing which each iteration. Stu talked to them about posture, breathing and the importance of having an eye on the leader as well as listening to other sections, not just your own. With just a few exercises in breathing and the conductor’s upbeat (explaining the winds/brass have to breathe before making their note, so strings have to breathe too to be beautifully in sync) the whole orchestra were breathing as one. On to the journey arc through each phrase, of finding a destination within the long held notes, the shifts in excitement levels, and other musical observations. With each note came a little exercise to embed the idea, and up the level of playing would go again.

By the end of the session the orchestra played the piece with such verve, character and accuracy that Stu became quite emotional - he had not expected them to fly to such heights in just 2 and a half hours. When it came to those who wanted to perform the piece alongside us at the concert that night, 14 felt confident enough and wanted to be on stage in front of an audience, which was many more than expected and a testament to how much they’d got out of the session.

Shetland Youth Orchestra

Shetland Youth Orchestra

I headed back to Bigton to lead a Repair workshop (woolly jumpers), whilst Stu, Jo, Chihiro and Jess found some lunch in Lerwick and visited the Peerie Shop.
The mending was underway in the Proil at Hymhus when they returned to rehearse in the main space there, so we mended holes in jumpers to the music of their rehearsal - lovely.

Repair of long tear with Sally

Repair of huge hole (patch!) with Audrey

Audrey gave us our tea, then concert time at Hymhus. Stu introduces the project, and each piece of music - a journey through blues and the gilded jazz age, with some classics thrown in - then comes the moment for the young musicians to join us on stage. Wanting everyone to get involved Stu gives the audience percussive sounds to make in 3 parts, which will kick off in the middle of New Orleans Funk. We’ve not rehearsed that with the young musicians, so a very rapid run through of how that section works… and we’re off. It was a great performance of the piece and a huge amount of fun for the audience to make their percussion sounds as part of it. Everyone was so excited by the end Stu decided to play Moon RIver as an encore to calm the room down!

Some of Shetland Youth Orchestra join CHROMA on stage at Hymhus

Some of Shetland Youth Orchestra join CHROMA on stage at Hymhus

After which came the social part of the evening with teas, coffees, cakes and much chat amongst all the generations.

What a music-packed and fantastic couple of days!
Thank you to the Bigton Community for welcoming us again, to the amazing young musicians of Bigton and the Shetland Youth Orchestra, to Alice and Jonathan Ritch for the organising and production management at Hymhus, to Annalie for being all over the SYO details, to our generous hosts Audrey, Winnie and Joe, and to everyone who came along to hear us and their young musicians at our Hymhus concert.

Day #2 - Bigton young musicians

Friday morning is for rehearsal in Bigton Hall (while basket weaving class is happening in Hymhus). Lovely to rehearse with a view!

rehearsing in the Hall

We join Friday Friends for lunch in Hymhus, then once we have eaten soup, homemade breads and cake, we play for a singsong - Moon River and Blue Suede Shoes.

impromptu side by side with Jess

The afternoon is spent with the young musicians of Bigton - (10 years and up). As they arrived from school some gravitated straight towards our instruments - spontaneous side-by-side jams breaking out. Once sat in a circle we worked on rhythm and chord structures for the classic 12 bar blues, then got all their instruments out to enjoy a session based on that, with some of them taking on solos.

We finished up with a bonus free improvisation session under the conducting baton of one of the young musicians. A very talented bunch of young musicians, excellent at thinking musically on their feet - such a joy.

the young musicians of Bigton

We leave Hymhus to the album listening event - following the theme of Blues, today it is Miles Davis Kind of Blue - and gather for supper at Audrey’s.