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Floating

from The River by Hamish Napier

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  • Compact Disc (CD) + Digital Album

    REVIEWS IN THE PRESS/MEDIA:

    ★★★★★ “Scintillating…brilliantly vivid”
    - The Scotsman

    ★★★★ “Capturing the emotions and atmospheres of his Speyside inspiration…The River brought history, myth and mood into the present.”
    - The Herald

    “Through his music he paints portraits of the river’s endless moods and mysteries…with such care and depth of emotion it’s impossible to avoid the irresistible pull of the current.”
    - Folk Radio UK

    “An excellent flute player.”
    - The Guardian

    “The River is a glorious album, one of vigorous desire and plentiful absolution.”
    - Liverpool Sound & Vision

    “A stellar live ensemble…”
    - Sunday Herald

    “The most amazing whistle player and genius composer…a completely beautiful and inspirational album…beautiful from start to finish…a masterpiece.”
    – Phil Brown, BBC Radio Lancashire

    "The album sounds fantastic...loads of great tunes and it is absolutely jam-packed with great ideas, a superb album altogether...It's one of these albums you can go back to again and again and again, and get more out of it each time."
    Bruce MacGregor, BBC Radio Scotland 'Travelling Folk'



    Q: What do I get if I order the CD?
    A: The album comes in a gorgeous-looking black and white digipack, including a 16 page booklet, all artwork and design by the fabulous Somhairle MacDonald somhairle.co.uk. Also includes vintage photos of the River Spey taken by local photographers in the the 1930s and 40s.


    Q: Why 'The River'? What's it about?
    A: Well...growing up on the banks of the river Spey (100 yards from it!), I spent many hours practicing to the roar of the river in the background, so it's always been there in my music.

    This piece brings to the surface vivid sonic images of occurrences, past and present, along the mile-long stretch of the Spey that flows past my childhood home. One of my brother's fishes it, the other canoes it, my Uncle Sandy photographed it, my mother paints it, and there's my Father's daily fascination with its erratically changing water level. It will always symbolize home and a strong connection to nature. No mortal's relationship with the river can ever be truly harmonious, its ever-changing micro-climate, mysteriously dark depths and unrelenting power are both merciless and enchanting.

    For my first solo album I wanted to make almost exclusive use of all of my musical resources and so the piece features many flute, whistles, pianos and keyboards - the sounds that are at the core of all my music. There's a wee tip of the hat to my favourite folk band 'Flook', in the alto flute and bodhran combination, played by Admiral Fallow's flautist Sarah Hayes, and Treacherous Orchestra's bodhran player Martin O'Neill. Also performing is are two members of top Scottish folk band 'Breabach': bassist James Lindsay and piper Calum MacCrimmon who is actually not piping but instead singing Canntaireachd - the ancient chanting language of the bagpipes. The project was engineered and coproduced beautifully by Glasgow-based Italian electronica musician Andrea Gobbi (Laki Mera, Ross AiInslie & Jarlath Henderson and Treacherous Orchestra), who created most of the soundscapes on the album.

    www.andreagobbi.co.uk


    Q: Who's on the record"
    A: The album features a lineup of Scottish musicians that Glasgow's 'Sunday Herald' recently described as "a Stellar ensemble"':

    Hamish Napier - whistles, wooden flutes, piano, harmonium, Fender Rhodes, Wurlitzer 200A, bean pod shakers and backing vocals
    Sarah Hayes - alto flute
    James Lindsay - double bass
    Martin O'Neill - bodhran
    Andrea Gobbi - synths and post-production
    Calum MacCrimmon - Vocals (Canntaireachd)
    Oystercatchers, Blackbirds, Curlews, Heron and River Spey - vocals

    Includes unlimited streaming of The River via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
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      £13 GBP or more 

     

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about

Floating (Hamish Napier)

What a pleasure it is to watch new forests, hills and farmland revealed to you as you sit still in your canoe, guided and steered by the current.

Floating has always been a recreation on the Spey, but it was also an industry up until around 1885, as Caledonian Scots pine timber was transported from the Abernethy forests to the Garmouth shipbuilding port on the Moray Firth. A team of three men would float big log rafts downstream, usually accompanied by another man in a Spey 'currach'. Paddled with a shovel, these one-man lightweight boats were "near three feet broad, and four long.... made of hide, with ribs or hoops of wood in the inside, and a cross-stick for the man to sit on." (Statistical Account of Scotland, 1795 and ScotNsh court records, 1780).

If the men from Nethy missed their transport back from Garmouth, they would have to carry their currach on their backs all the way back home from Speymouth back to their sawmill in Abernethy. Those boys were hardy!

credits

from The River, released January 19, 2016
Hamish Napier - whistles, wooden flutes, piano, harmonium, Rhodes, Wurly, clavinet, bean pods and backing vocals


Sarah Hayes - alto flute

James Lindsay - double bass

Martin O'Neill - bodhran

Calum MacCrimmon - vocals (Canntaireachd)
Oystercatchers, Curlew, Heron & River Spey - vocals

All tracks composed by Hamish Napier PRS/MCPS. 
Canntaireachd lyrics by Calum MacCrimmon

All tracks arranged by Hamish Napier with invaluable contributions from Andrea Gobbi
Produced by Hamish Napier and Andrea Gobbi
Recorded and mixed at carrier Waves Studies, Glassgow
Mastered by Guy Davie at Electric Mastering
Photos, artwork and design by Somhairle Macdonald

For more info on The River visit www.hamishnapier.com
 
 
This album is dedicated to my mother, for sharing with me her vast musical knowledge and passion for composition and for first encouraging me to write and arrange music as a child; and to my father, for sharing with me his great love of nature, history and outdoor adventures. I cannot thank them enough for their love and support over the years.

Thanks to: Donald Shaw and the Celtic Connections festival team; The Spey Cast (Sarah Hayes, Martin O'Neill, James Lindsay, James Duncan Mackenzie, Ross Ainslie, Dave Milligan, Tom Gibbs and Andrea Gobbi); Duncan Lyall for the lend of his harmonium; James Duncan MacKenzie for the lend of his Martin Doyle E flat flute; Jarlath Henderson for the Uillean pipe drone sample; Niall Macauley for the field recorder hire; Calum MacCrimmon at The Big Music Society; Martin Hadden at Bimam CD; Alison Smith at Maxwell Music; Mike and Kirsty Shilson at Honeyrock Health; All the staff and students on the BMus Traditional Music degree course at The Royal Conservatoire of Scotland; The Ledinghams for the local photos; William and Muriel Grant for finding Beel Grant's old fishing photo albums; Bill Sadler at the Grantown Society; Caimgorm National Park; Adam Sutherland and Nae Plans; Cask Strength Ceilidh Band; Blas Collective; Man's Ruin; Mairi Maclnnes; Findlay Napier; Marc Duff; Jarlath Henderson; Ross Ainslie; Iain Macfarlane; Mike Vass; Fi Vass; Finlay MacDonald; Chris Stout; Dave Francis and Simon Thoumire.

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Hamish Napier Grantown On Spey, UK

Hamish is a multi-instrumentalist and composer from the Scottish Highlands.

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