Today sees the release of Simmerdim: Curlew Sounds, a unique double album, multi-artist project of newly-commissioned works and soundscapes, inspired by one of the UK’s most iconic and endangered birds, the Eurasian curlew. The project is the brainchild of the Orkney-born musician Merlyn Driver, who, with the support of the RSPB, has made this extraordinary project possible.
The first single, released on 21st April to coincide with World Curlew Day, was the title track by Merlyn featuring Nathan Riki Thomson:
Merlyn was born and brought up on a smallholding in Orkney in the north of Scotland and spent a lot of his childhood outdoors (partly because he was home-schooled and had no electricity in the house). The sound of curlews calling out in the simmerdim – the night-long twilight found in the Northern Isles around midsummer – is one of his most vivid memories of home. The curlew’s song, with sounds that seem to overlap between major and minor, makes them haunting, melancholic and strangely ecstatic, all at the same time.
The idea for the Curlew Sounds project emerged from Merlyn’s work on a new song, ‘Simmerdim’, inspired by his memories of curlews. In the course of his research, he discovered the wealth of folklore, poetry, art and music curlews have inspired, and came to realise the true scale of their recent struggles. In some parts of the UK, curlew numbers have nose-dived more than 60% and they are now on the Birds of Conservation Concern Red List. The devastating prospect of losing curlews from the British countryside drove Merlyn to act and assemble new creative responses to this iconic bird – specifically to raise funds and awareness for their conservation.
Merlyn reached out to a group of musicians who were either UK-based or from countries where the curlew migrates to or from the UK, such as Norway and Finland, and asked them to compose new music inspired by the curlew. The result is the 12 tracks on Disc One, which range from a curlew Sámi joik to electronic curlew sampling, Indian tabla, an Estonian talharpa fiddle piece, Finnish a capella and traditional British folk.
For Disc Two, Merlyn travelled, Alan Lomax-style, the length and breadth of the UK, collecting recordings of curlews at five locations around the UK identified as priority landscapes for curlews by the RSPB’s Curlew LIFE project; Geltsdale and Hadrian’s Wall (England), Ysbyty Ifan and Hiraethog(Wales), Insh Marshes (Scotland), Loch Erne Lowlands, and Antrim Plateau (Northern Ireland), where the aim is to stabilise curlew breeding populations within these landscapes over the next four years.
He has also collected curlew recordings from near his childhood home in Orkney, once home to the highest density of curlews in the UK. Alongside the album, there will be a new podcast series (available Spotify and elsewhere) exploring the natural history and conservation of curlews, as well as their place in culture and folklore.
WEBSITE https://www.curlewsoundsproject.org