Lise Sinclair Completes Successful Launch and Tour of New Album
11 April 2012
Singer and songwriter, Lise Sinclair has
returned home to Fair Isle, following the successful completion of
a tour and album launch for her new album A Time to Keep and other
songs, including, amongst others, a concert in The Nordic Hus
in Rejkjavík, Iceland, on Saturday 17th March. The album, of
original songs written by Lise and Icelandic jazz maestro,
Ástvaldur Traustasson, is inspired by a collection of short stories
by George Mackay Brown, published in 1969, and has been receiving a
number of very positive reviews since its launch. Lise will also be
performing songs from the album, along with Brian Cromarty, at a
Shetland Folk Festival concert at the Legion on Friday 4th
May.
For the tour, Lise gathered a band from
across the North Isles, including members of Shetland and Orkney's
famous big bands The Chair and Fullsceilidh Spelemannslag, Brian
Cromarty and Ewen Thomson, and another Fair Isle born singer,
songwriter and multi-instrumentalist, Inge Thomson, who also works
with Karine Polwart. With Ástvaldur on piano and dynamic Icelandic
translations and readings of the lyrics by Ađalsteinn Ásberg, the
A Time to Keep
performances gave audiences a night to remember.
The tour began in the timeless surroundings
of St Magnus Cathedral in Kirkwall where George himself was
inspired, then saw Lise and her band of Northern Islanders and
Icelanders travelling by boat and plane from Orkney to Fair Isle,
to Shetland, then Edinburgh and, finally, to Iceland.
Lise said "The audience feedback has been
amazing, as if the songs themselves are like a journey in the
isles! Touring the North Isles in March is not ideal, given the
odds of storms, but the project has a great debt to Scotland's
Island's Funding this year, which ends now in March, so we had to
just go for it! And somehow, we made it, although we did have to
postpone the concert in the Lerwick Town Hall by a day - we were
really sorry about that. But the audiences everywhere seemed to
really connect with the performances. We had a packed theatre in
Edinburgh, of course A
Time to Keep (the book) has a lot of fans, as does George's
work, then the beautiful Icelandic readings added that timeless
reflection of another part of our culture."
She added: "I really appreciate having been
able to get such a talented and creative band of folk together to
make the music come alive, to be able to play it in Orkney and
Shetland, and to take this very island noise as far as Edinburgh
and Iceland."
Sigridur Johannesdóttir, former member of
the Icelandic parliament, said: "The performance went directly to
one's heart and I felt how deep and how alike these two nations
are. It seemed that these poems could be from the Westfjords (of
Iceland), so close to me was the subject… The translations by
Aðalsteinn wereexcellent… We had a pleasant time with
our kinsfolk from Orkney and Shetland and the relationship is more
clear with these nations than one realises in everyday
life."
Author Vilborg Davíðsdóttir, from
Reykjavík, Iceland, said: "I went to the concert in the Nordic
House in Reykjavík where the audience was also treated to the story
behind each song, inspired by George Mackay Brown´s book "A Time to
Keep", as well as a performance of the lyrics in Icelandic by poet
Aðalsteinn Ásberg Sigurðsson , which added yet another dimension to
the experience of listening to this wonderful music. I just love
this gentle music. It´s haunting; it touches my heart in a special
way, transferring me to another time and place."
The album is now available for purchase
from the following outlets:
Shetland:
High Level Music, Shetland Times Bookshop, Stackhoull Stores,
and The Fair Isle Bird Observatory and will soon be available in
other local shops.
Orkney:
The Orcadian Bookshop, Grooves, The Reel and The Stromness
Bookshop and will soon be available in other local
shops.
Online:
Amazon and
Music in Scotland.
Reviews:
"You will listen and
listen, I guarantee, and re-read the stories, and find your own
special favourites… Get the CD. It'll haunt you, send you back to
Brown, and, more importantly perhaps, send you to the work of Lise
Sinclair." - Morag McInnes,
Northings.
"…fiercely intelligent
and magically composed... Icelandic, jazzy, classical, sexy, comic,
tender, vibrant, poetic." - Conrad Molleson, Musician and Animator,
HODA Productions, Rock Operator.
"She brings the original
inspiration to life while creating new accents for changing times.
The result is accomplished and moving." - Donald Smith, Director,
Scottish Storytelling Centre, Edinburgh.
"Brilliant. I'm not sure what I liked best, the music, the lilt of
the Icelandic readings, Lise's singing or her animated
intros giving background info to the songs and music!" Dave Wheeler, Fair Isle
Times.
"If the hypnotic,
slightly woozy title track is anything to go by, introduced by the
tolling of the Fair Isle Chapel bell… there should be plenty more
performances of A Time To Keep to look forward to." Roger Cox, The
Scotsman, Arts Diary.