Sweet Airs

The wind is responsible for so many things in the Hebrides (remote islands off the west coast of Scotland). It hardly ever stops blowing. It has many characters and is accompanied by all kinds of other weather conditions. For a sound artist and composer making recordings in the islands the wind can be a curse, but it is more often a delightful carrier of the voices of people, animals, birds and things. These airborne sounds often come from far away, their source hidden from view, mysterious like the ‘sweet airs’ of Shakespeare’s play The Tempest - the sounds of a birthday party far across the island; sheep roaming the cliffs; people singing hymns together in a house; cows waiting to board the ferry to be sold on the mainland; snippets of a church service and the cries of different birds. The wind also has its own voices and activates the songs of other objects - gates, plants, leaves, fences. The wind is an accompaniment to all aspects of life on these unique islands.

• http://www.ohrenhoch.org/