| Alluvion | 5' 04" | 1998 |
Alluvion (1998) was commissioned by BBC Radio Scotland as part of their series of Domesday Soundscapes: a set of short 'sonic postcards' from various parts of Scotland intended for broadcast. Much of the source material was recorded on Harris, one of Scotland's Western Isles, during the previous year. Rather than a depiction or an aural snapshot of Harris, Alluvion is intended to be a personal response to the island and the experience of its bleak, isolated, beauty. The vocal material is derived from an interview with Alice Mullay, an islander, and relates to her response to living on an island and in particular her thoughts on having lived so much of her life 'close to the sea'. Apart from the opening phrase, the words of the vocal material can hardly be discerned, and certainly little meaning can be grasped from them, obscured as they are by brassage and layering techniques. This is used in Alluvion to create metaphors, both for the sparse but very present population on the island, and the feeling of infinite, ungraspable, distances which can be perceived looking out to sea from Harris.
Alluvion was composed with financial help from a Composers' Development Bursary from the Scottish Arts Council.