Today, we have the pleasure of sharing a live performance from Northern Ireland’s Bróna McVittie, recorded at Grand Chapel Studios in Tebworth in May 2023, thanks to a grant from the National Lottery and the Arts Council of Northern Ireland. With her Camac Electroharp and Strymon Dig Dual Delay (a characteristic feature of her sound), Bróna performs ‘When Glamour Hid Her Gaze‘. The track is taken from her 2020 album, The Man in the Mountain (reviewed here). If you’ve ever had the chance to see one of Bróna McVittie’s rare concerts, you’ll realise that her stage performance stands apart from the carefully crafted studio recordings of her songs. This brand-new live video is no exception.
As noted in Thomas Blake’s review of that album, “we often associate the harp with a kind of fey prettiness, as if its sound is the musical equivalent of filigree or lacework. As an object, a harp is a kind of signifier, conjuring up ambrosial imagery, femininity, a kind of classical purity. Bróna McVittie’s music can encapsulate all of these things. It can be pretty and delicate. She is capable of soothing passages, of notes that sound like falling water and pastoral dreams. But that is only half the story. McVittie is an avid experimentalist, willing to augment folky arrangements with passages of ultra-modern electronica…She is a writer, a composer, and a producer….highly attuned to the ways in which a wide range of musicians can contribute to her singular artistic vision.” He concludes: “There is an added maturity, a new breadth of influence, and a creative control that sets this album apart. But she never loses the wide-eyed sense of wonder at the poetry of the natural world. If she set out to reflect that beauty and that wonder in music, she has succeeded admirably.”
Director of Photography: Adam Hale (Resonate Studios)
Studio Engineer: Roberto Sacco
Audio Post-Production: Thomas Gandey
Booking agent Phil Simpson (Nearfield Artists) said after attending her headline performance in Manchester during her recent tour to promote her third album, “I loved the show so much; it was so nice to hear those songs live and what a truly engaging, serene and healing experience it was!” Bróna is a proponent of the healing power of music. For the past few years, she has worked alongside singer/songwriter Tommy Sands with Northern Irish peace charity Artsawonder on a new series of events on ‘music as medicine’.
Website: https://bronamcvittie.corkbots.com/