Reviews
Artist:The Willow Trio Album: Eala Shàilein / The Swan of Salen
Label: Self Released
Tracks: 15
Website: https://www.thewillowtrio.co.uk
Well, this is certainly something a bit different. There are not that many Gaelic Folk / Romantic Ballet crossover albums to choose between, so if that is your niche this new recording from Glasgow-based outfit The Willow Trio will be right up your street. Or, perhaps I should say, right up your loch.
Sam MacAdam, Romy Wymer, and the wonderfully named Sophie Rocks have, individually, been making names for themselves as performers and composers for classical harp and clàrsach, or Celtic harp. Coming together as The Willow Trio, their 2021 debut EP 'Oystercatchers' featured five instrumental tracks inspired by the wildlife of the Cowal peninsular in the Scottish Highlands. Eala Shàilein is their first full-length album release, recorded at Dystopia Studios in Glasgow, and engineered by Luigi Pasquini.
Lying slightly further West from the Cowal peninsular in the Scottish Highlands is Loch Sunart, and on the banks of Loch Sunart lie the ancient ruins of the hill fort of Dún Ghallain. It is from here that the Gaelic legend of Eala Shàilein originates. It is the story of a local chieftan who fell in love with a beautiful, but lowly, maiden. His mother disapproved, turning said fair maiden into a swan who, in turn, was shot and killed by the chieftan. Filled with remorse as he watches the dead swan turn back into human form, the chieftan falls on his sword and dies. Legend has it that they both lie beneath the ruined walls of Dún Ghallain.
Meanwhile, Tchaikovsky's ballet 'Swan Lake' is universally loved for its tragic tale of Odette, the princess also turned into a swan by an evil curse, but who can return to human form at night. Only by leaping into the lake with her lover can the spell be finally broken, so that they can be together, but to remain as swans.
By weaving together threads of Tchaikovsky's ballet 'Swan Lake' into this lovingly arranged fabric of Gaelic tradition, The Willow Trio create a delicate and spellbinding instrumental suite, in whch the three clàrsachs conspire to conjure the spirit and magic of both Highland Scotland and Romantic Imperial Russia. And, as we pick out the familiar melodies from their arrangements of Tchaikovsky's score - the Song of the Swan, and the Dance of The Little Swans, and the Waltz and the Hungarian Dance, we are bewitched by beautifully augmented original sections that seamlessly stitch in place the atmosphere and folk tradition of the Scottish landscape.
The result is a truly exquisite album. But there is more. An upcoming tour of small Scottish venues will see The Willow Trio present Eala Shàilein to rural Scottish communities as a multimedia event for rural highland communities, using a projected backdrop of ballet dancers choreographed by Deborah Norris of Ballet Folk, to run alongside the live music. Perhaps, in time, some of us south of the border will have the chance to experience it as well.
David Auckland
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