Human migration is the movement of people from one place to another, often for reasons of war, famine, economic necessity, or political, religious, or other types of persecution and large-scale human rights violations in their home country. Whether voluntary or forced, migration has been with us since time immemorial and has profoundly shaped the world in which we now live.
And it is the theme of migration that FitkinWall – the duo of composer Graham Fitkin and harpist Ruth Wall – take for their latest project. Here they focus upon the Highland Clearances that took place in Scotland from 1750–1860 when tens of thousands of tenant farmers and crofters were forcibly evicted from their homes by landowners and clan chiefs who wanted to increase their income by repurposing the areas of the Highlands and western Scottish islands for sheep and cattle farming.
Informed by Ruth Wall having grown up in Sutherland in the Scottish Highlands, the show features three of her harps (electro, Gaelic wire strung, and bray) with Graham Fitkin in charge of the electronic input, as he transforms the sound on stage. Accompanying the musical performance is a specially commissioned light installation from artist Peter Freeman and excerpts from interviews with migrants into Scotland that were conducted by Wall last year.
Bisected by a short interval, the concert is split into two equal parts, with each half comprising six tracks. Most of the dozen pieces are Scottish in origin, their titles – ‘Atholl’, ‘Geal Og’, ’Uist’, ‘Beinn Dorain’, ‘Harris Gregor’, ‘I Ho Ro’ – revealing their strong Scots/Gaelic folk heritage.
A couple of exceptions are the Welsh song ‘Y Gog’ (The Cuckoo) and ‘Yalda’, the traditional Persian celebration of the longest night of the year. Each piece, though, is connected by the deep yearning and strong sense of loss caused by involuntary displacement, feelings reinforced by the interview excerpts whose marked poignancy stitch the entire concert together. At one point a faltering female voice says, “We cannot live the same day tomorrow,” her vulnerability and fear apparent. It is a deeply moving moment and brings into sharp relief the contemporary issue of migration and the human costs associated with it.
With its dispersed textures, subtle sonic shifts, and the occasional brutal rhythm – ‘Beinn Dorain’ adopts a harsh industrial beating heart – the music captures the resonance of the mass depopulation of the Highlands and Islands and the often-devastating impact of wider global migration. Yet through Harpland, FitkinWall gives a voice to all those who were and are still being forced into exile.
Photos: Simon Godley
More photos of FitkinWall at Howard Assembly Room
