For rising Scottish singer-songwriter Jenny Sturgeon, nature and song are intrinsically linked.
Environment, ecology and the elements are a touchstone for the Shetland-based musician and The Living Mountain, her second solo album (16 October on Hudson Records), is a fine example of the way humankind can connect and be inspired by the natural world.
Multi-instrumentalist Jenny, who has a PhD in seabird ecology and organises Shetland Songwriting Festival, is also a gifted artist with her own cottage industry Ink & Wool.
From the start, her musical career has been tightly entwined with the environment.
Nominated for Composer of the Year at the 2018 Scots Trad Music Awards, Aberdeenshire-raised Sturgeon also performs with the acclaimed alt-folk band Salt House and in the bird and migration-inspired Northern Flyway – an audiovisual project co-written with Inge Thomson.
From the mesmeric opening heartbeat of Flyway, to the excitement of the closing flute duet in Huggin and Muninn, Northern Flyway‘s combination of sound and vision, fact and folklore, is a remarkable, unique and fascinating live experience.
Neil McFadyen (Live Review)
Previous releases include the EP Source To Sea (2014), her 2016 debut album From the Skein and 2017’s The Wren and The Salt Air – a commission from the National Trust for Scotland to mark 30 years of Hebridean island St Kilda as a World Heritage Site for nature.
But now comes probably her most affecting album to date. The Living Mountain was inspired by trailblazing nature writer Nan Shepherd’s book of the same name and Jenny’s experience growing up near, and walking in, the Cairngorms. Within the song cycle Jenny explores her personal connection to this highland area as well as delving into Nan’s philosophy of simply ‘being’ in the mountains and interacting with the wild. Shepherd’s 1940s mountain memoir, which lay unpublished for some three decades, has been described by The Guardian as “the finest book ever written on nature and landscape in Britain”.
In his introduction to the book, award-winning author Robert Macfarlane describes the Cairngorms as “Britain’s Arctic”. “In winter, storm winds of up to 170 miles per hour rasp the upper shires of the range, avalanches scour its slopes and northern lights flare green and red above the summits. Even in high summer, snow still lies in the deepest corries, sintering slowly into ice.”
Recorded and produced by Andy Bell at Clashnettie Arts Centre in the Cairngorms National Park, Sturgeon’s twelve songs mirror the chapter titles of Shepherd’s book – ten self-penned songs and two arrangements of Shepherd’s poems, interwoven with field recordings captured from within the Cairngorms – from flowing rivers to birdsong (you can hear the real thing if you visit 57°10’34.9″N 2°59’27.6″W.)
Moving and meditative, the melodies are stripped back while the sharply-observed, engaging lyrics are like geo-poems, telling of exploration and wonder of the natural world – from small scale mosses and moths to the wider landscape and ecosystem.
The airy, spacious compositions revolve around Jenny’s striking voice while she plays piano, harmonium, dulcimer, thumb piano, whistle and a unique ‘Nan Taran’ guitar, crafted in Fife especially for this project from reclaimed Scottish wood by luthiers Rory Dowling and Zachie Morris.
The heather-inlayed guitar body has been crafted from a Cainrgorm Scots Pine pub bar shelf and the neck from a Scottish walnut stair bannister while the oak headstock was created from the beam of an old Scottish fishing boat (more here).
The album also features Mairi Campbell on viola and vocals, Scottish Chamber Orchestra’s Su-a Lee on cello, Grant Anderson on bass and vocals, and further sound recordings from Jez Riley-French and Magnus Robb.
Soothing and poignant Jenny’s compositions seem to scour every inch and mood of the mountain range, its flora and fauna, looking at what it means to connect with a landscape and find a sense of place.
Says Jenny: “The Living Mountain was written by Aberdonian Nan Shepherd, in the last years of the Second World War and it sat in her desk drawer until it was published in 1977. She eloquently captured the essence of the Cairngorm range and also the joy and wonder of being outdoors in the wild. She wrote about her journey in to the mountains and in to being; discovering the secrets of the mountain, its geology, plants, animals, water and weathers, as well as her own connection to this place and how she fitted in to the landscape.’
‘Learning more about Nan and delving in to her writing has changed and evolved my own connection and experiences in these mountains and with nature in general. I hope this record captures some of the spirit of the mountains and her energy.”
Today sees the release of lead single Air & Light, watch the accompanying video by Shona Thomson.
Pre-Order Now on CD and Limited Edition Blue Vinyl http://smarturl.it/thelivingmountain
Released 16/10/20