Rufus Isabel Elliot: Waves Crash on Old Street

Composer Rufus Isabel Elliot and artists Miek Zwamborn and Rutger Emmelkamp from KNOCKvologan Studios bring the Isle of Mull’s wild Atlantic rainforest of Tireragan to LSO St Luke’s.

The Programme

Time passes, leaving footprints behind her. Roots twist and deepen, leaves unfurl, turn orange, fall, and decay, tents are pitched and unpitched, the tide changes. Amongst the forest and shore, the works here become voices from this place, echoing off cliffs or encountered on the path.

Archival tape hiss becomes harmonic material in David Fennessy’s transcription of The Blue Eyed Lassie. We hear the unfurling of flowers in Mason’s Efflorescence, and we meet the otter who crosses our path in Arnold’s Lutra. Monk Feldman and Akama present chordal piano sequences, exploring open and closed spaces. 

Elliot’s new work for piano trio closes the concert, imagining the wavering songs that belong intrinsically to a bivvy place amongst the cliffs of Tireragan – songs that transform a place in the wild into a sleeping place. Featuring visuals by KNOCKvologan Studios, it hopes to bring that place alive in the hall of LSO St Luke’s.

About the Collaboration

Artists Miek Zwamborn and Rutger Emmelkamp are based in Knockvologan, on the Isle of Mull, where they merge their creative work with the natural worlds of forest and shore that surround them. They have an ongoing collaboration with composer Rufus Isabel Elliot. Last year, they brought a recording studio into the forest near Knockvologan, singing together small songs found amongst hazel trees.

Presented by LSO Discovery.

LSO Jerwood Composer+ is generously supported by Jerwood Foundation. Rufus Isabel Elliot’s new work is generously supported by Marchus Trust, the Hinrichsen Foundation and the Vaughan Williams Foundation.