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The Whiteadder Tapes

by OOR_Scintilla

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1.
Dr. George henderson of chirnside (1800–1864) Our bonny burnsides Our-bonny burnsides they hae drained and dug, The crooks o the burn they hae altered too; The green ferny knows where the hare lay snug, They hae cleared o’ ilk buss, and riven wi the pleugh. The bonny green braes by the foggy dell Where grew the broom and the black slae-thorn, They hae levelled down wi a purpose fell, And Nature laments as her beauties torn. The moor and the moss they hae aa ta’en in To add to the great man’s wealth and store, And the green bog-land, where sykes did rin, Will bear the hay for our kye no more. They hae torn up the sod o’ the lang-syne fauld, And scattered the dust o’ the hill-side cairn, Where lay the bones o’ the warriors auld, And Nature laments aa her beauties torn. They hae choked up the well that flowed sae free, And the bonny well-strand they hae drained away, Where young maiden Helen sang in her glee, Or hied wi her full stoups up the brae. Where flourished the rash-bus down yon howe, The barley rigs now wave there unshorn; And there mong the rashes we’ll nae mair rowe, Where Nature laments aa her beauties torn.
2.
krottos 04:41
3.
4.
Lamachree and Megrum (traditional) When first I came to sair the fremt, Lamachree and Megrum, It was to Auchtiedoor I skemt Auld grey Megrum. The Auld gude-wife smokes i the neuk, Lamachree and Megrum, A-orderin' at the throwither cook. Auld grey Megrum. The neist I gaed to Middlethird, Lamachree and Megrum, A better's nae abune the yird. Auld grey Megrum. I gaed ance to Middletack, Lamachree and Megrum, There I got meat to make me fat. Auld grey Megrum. I there got buttered breid and cheese, Lamachree and Megrum, And oil to keep my sheen in grease. Auld grey Megrum. Took a turn at Aichie’s hill, Lamachree and Megrum, The teuchest place I e'er gaed till. Auld grey Megrum. A hurb to hash and haick the loon, Lamachree and Megrum, There's nae his like in Buchan's boun's. Auld grey Megrum.
5.
Paddy Tunney’s translation of an bunnan bui the yellow bittern a shining variant of Cathal Buí Mac Giolla Ghunna's wry beautiful empathy with the bittern frozen head first into Lough Lough MacNean, dying for want of a drink it’s absence felt in no booming call. A hand to the Irish workers travelling to build the dam at the hungry snout. Was the break of day but no bittern's horn filled the waking morn with its hollow boom For I found him prone by the bare flag blown by the lough shore lone where he met his doom His legs were sunk in the slime and slunk; a hostage held in the fangs of frost O you of knowledge lament his going; for want of liquor his life was lost O bittern bright it's my thousand woes that the rooks and crows are all pleasure bound With the rats and mice as they cross the ice to indulge in vice at your funeral mound Had word reached me of your awful plight on the ice I'd smite and the water free You'd have all the lake your thirst to slake and we'd hold no wake for the Bunnan Bui O it's not the blackbird that I'm bewailing or thrush assailing the blossom bray But my bittern yellow that hearty fellow who has my hue and my wilful ways By the loughshore bank he forever drank and his sorrow sank in the rolling wave Come sun or rain every drop I'll drain for the cellar's empty beyond the grave
6.

about

The Whiteadder Tapes is the culmination of a sonic archaeology project undertaken by OOR_Scintilla in response to new mapping and excavational research led by AOC Archaeology in the Whiteadder Water Valley, Scottish borders for the Whiteadder: Heart of the Lammermuirs community project 2019-2020 whiteadder.aocarchaeology.com.

Composed solely from field recordings, instrument sound and the human voice, the record is an exploration of acoustic ecology and the territories between environmental, human and technological presences in the context of local history and folk narrative.

The album re-works, fragments and builds upon on a number of related Scottish + Irish folk laments as a basis for exploring dynamics of the voice, placing them within improvisational terrains of traditional instrument drones, environmental sounds, stray electromagnetic signals, infrasonic listening.

Through a continual tuning in and out of the Whiteadder Valley’s natural material and unique historical remains (earth, water, winds, streams, stones, mosses, forest, brochs, cairns, hillforts) together with gestures merging traditional and contemporary music, The Whiteadder Tapes invites one on a journey through intimacy, distance, the speculative poetics of listening and languages of place.

voice / strings (crwth, violin, guitars) / bowls / gongs / harmonium / granular synths / bodhran / sheep bells / aeolian resonators / binaurals / electromagnetics / hydrophonics / infrasound / ultrasound

A limited-edition physical CD designed by the artists is also available on request, featuring sonographic & photographic imagery captured in the Whiteadder Valley, together with researched lyrical text.

A copy of the CD can be requested via email at oorscintilla@gmail.com.

The interactive LiDAR map of the Whiteadder project area and archaeological findings can be explored at: whiteadder.aocarchaeology.com/web-map/

credits

released September 4, 2020

© 2020 OOR_Scintilla (Louisa Love + Clive McLachlan Powell)

All tracks recorded, composed + produced by OOR_Scintilla between rural Scotland + Cov.19 home isolations

LiDAR image credit: Crown © Scottish Government, SEPA and Fugro (2020).

Produced through funding from East Lothian Council, Scottish Borders Council + the Fallago Environment Fund. With thanks also to AOC Archaeology Group + Rob MacTaggart at CMC Associates.

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about

OOR_Scintilla Edinburgh, UK

OOR_Scintilla (Louisa Love + Clive McLachlan Powell) are a Scotland based experimental artist duo exploring the material poetics of sound, voice and place.

Working with numerous forms of resonance across field recording, instruments, electronics + the voice, they produce environmentally-responsive work investigating hybrid and enigmatic territories with reference to ancient folk origins.
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