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Cairngorms Fauna Jukebox

by Alec Finlay and Chris Watson

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about

Fauna Jukebox accompanies the book 'gathering', by Alec Finlay.

Finlay selected place-names to identify sites associated with native animals and birds, and Chris then pressed a one-off LP with original recordings of their calls and songs. This was played on a portable record player that we carried to each site, re-recording the calls in situ. We were hearing the same sounds that the people who named these places listened to, sometimes hundreds of years ago. Those moments listening to the record call out brought the theatre of the landscape alive, creating interactions between extinct species and those that occupy their place-names now. The jukebox also broadcasts the potential of reintroductions, especially at All-mhad Barn, which hasn’t heard a wolf howl in two hundred and fifty years.


sounding the Monadh Ruadh

ptarmigan, the grumbler on The Ptarmigan Brae
a glimpsed stag skylined on the nameless hill beyond Càrn Damhaireach, Rut Cairn
golden plovers piping on Càrn Mor
above Coire na Feadaige, Golden Plover Corrie
an eagle perhaps probably a buzzard
circling over The Genechal, The Auld Wuid, and Sgòr na h-Iolaire, The Eagles Rock
where there’s a perfect crag for an eagle to take off into the wind
yes a song thrush sounding the alarm in Preas Bad Smeòraich,
The Song Thrush Bit-of-the-wood
fox scat on the rocks at Allt an t-Sionnaich, Fox Burnie a roe-deer barking a warning down
to All-mhad barn, Wolf Rock
and dogs barking in the glen
a maybe-capercaillie fly-past in Preas Bad nan Coileach-dubha,
The Blackcock Bit-of-the-wood
but in the mists of Clais nan Cat, Wildcats Niche
there was no sound to be heard from any living thing

(with Chris Watson)


"Long, long ago, wild and ferocious beasts roamed through the forests of the Braes o’ Mar – the wolf, the boar, the wild-cat. They are all away now, like the people with whom they contended for possession, save a few cowed-down and spiritless wild-cats."

John Grant: Legends of the Braes o’ Mar, A King, 1876

This album features: golden plover, fox, raven, wolf, stag, song thrush, wildcat, boar, eagle, black cock, and ptarmigan.

credits

released April 2, 2018

Sound design by Chris Watson.
Recording locations identified by Alec Finlay from place-names collected by Adam Watson and Elizabeth Allan.
Vinyl playback by Maggie Watson.
Photography by Mhairi Law.

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Alec Finlay and Chris Watson UK

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