‘Immaculate playing’ BBC Music Magazine
Internationally renowned harp and electronica duo FitkinWall follow threads of migration, loss and longing in their new show. Ruth Wall’s explorations into Gaelic song, fiddle and pipe tunes and the history of the Scottish Highlands where she grew up have a particular focus on migration and the Highland Clearances. Graham Fitkin has created enigmatic and mesmerising new versions of these tunes for Ruth’s three harps – the sitar-like Renaissance bray harp, the beautiful medieval Gaelic wire harp (clàrsach) and the Scottish lever harp.
FitkinWall are touring their new show Harpland from November 2023- 2024. Confirmed dates already include Edinburgh Queens Hall, Stirling Tolbooth, Liverpool Tung, Turner Sims, Falmouth AMATA, Ludlow Assembly Room, York NCEM, Leeds Howard Assembly Room, Cardiff RWCMD.
Ruth’s passion for the highly ornamented Scottish pibroch piping technique informs her playing style and inspires the sound world of this fascinating and unique concert. In this show FitkinWall combine ancient aural sources with modern technology creating something beautiful and at times disturbing. Dark, fragmented folk moods transform into soaring fast-paced music. The performance will feature a specially commissioned light installation by acclaimed artist Peter Freeman which is choreographed to respond to the music. You will also hear interviews with people who have migrated into the Highlands interspersed between the musical numbers.
FitkinWall have performed around the world – from the Royal Albert Hall, BBC Proms, Aldeburgh and Glastonbury Festivals to Spiral Hall Tokyo, Aula Magna Rome and tours in Iceland, Sweden and Italy.
Ruth Wall was brought up in Sutherland, immersed in the songs and tunes of the Highlands. She has performed on stages around the world – Sydney Opera House, Berlin Philharmonic, Gucci 75th celebrations in Rome and Florence, Radio City New York, and the London Olympic Celebrations. Ruth has featured as a soloist with the London Chamber Orchestra and the BBC Concert Orchestra and toured extensively with Goldfrapp, The Will Gregory Moog Ensemble, Kathryn Tickell, Ockham’s Razor.
Composer Graham Fitkin has worked with Yo-Yo Ma, Kathryn Stott, Tokyo Symphony Orchestra, BBC Symphony Orchestra, New York City Ballet. He has won three BASCA composer awards and the Royal Philharmonic Society Composer Award 2015.
FitkinWall album reviews: “The harp is luminous, pastoral and urban at the same time under Wall’s fingers, she pushes the instrument to its limits …The sound is immaculate.” London Jazz News
“…a series of musical equations that work their way through the ears into the mind, their rhythmic and melodic themes interweaving, rising and falling. It feels by turn widescreen and microscopic. It’s subtle, uncluttered, minimal and extremely focusing… a thoroughly absorbing world of tension, suspension and release.” Songlines
