Unknown Artist – Salm: Gaelic Psalms From The Hebrides Of Scotland Volume One

Label: Arc Light Editions – ALE007
Series: Salm (2) – 1
Format: Vinyl, LP
Country: UK
Released: 2018
Genre: Folk, World, & Country
Style: Celtic, Religious

The recordings of Gaelic Psalm singing presented in the release are among the best ever captured. They document a living tradition, a form of religious singing from the Hebrides in Scotland, which is still practiced in Lewis. In Gaelic psalm singing, a precentor leads, and from here voices follow, moving together in great swells like the murmurations of birds.

These recordings of Gaelic Psalm singing were originally made over two evenings in the Back Free Church on the Isle of Lewis in October 2003. The singing was spontaneous and totally unrehearsed. The recordings are here pressed to vinyl for the first time.

This is music that is transcendent and together, about the individual and the earth, movingly spiritual with or without belief. The sound comes in great waves, swells of sound that break and roll around the space. The texture relies on the individuals: this is group singing where the individual is preserved, elevated, but together.

Also featured on that 4hr documentary about improvisation hosted by Derek Bailey which Channel 4 commissioned in 1992, aye. (NM)

Tracklist
1 Psalm 16: 8-9; Kilmarnock: Calum Martin (Tong)
2 Psalm 9: 10-11; Montrose: Angus Graham (Barvas)
3 Psalm 48: 13-14; St. David: Rev. James MacIver (Knock)
4 Psalm 57, Verse 1; Martyrdom: John Macsween (Tarbert)
5 Psalm 79: 3-4; Martyrs: Donald J. MacDonald (Barvas)
6 Psalm 63: 2-3; New London: Donald Macleod (Bayble)
7 Psalm 103: 1-2; Dundee: Rev. Neil Shaw (Conon-Bridge)
8 Psalm 16: 5-7; Moravia: Kenneth A. Makay (Vig)
9 Psalm 13: 1-2; Walsall: Murdo Maclennan (Marvig)
10 Psalm 45: 13-14; Bedford: Murdo Kennedy (Marvig)
11 Psalm 22: 1-2; Bangor: Iain Macaskill (Tolsta)
12 Psalm 133; Stornoway: John Murdo Martin (Portree)