Bróna McVittie may be one of our lesser-known artists from Northern Ireland, but her talent is unique and unquantified. It's courageous work. She undertakes explorations and collaborations that blend the old, new, and borrowed and brews them in a cauldron of experimentation.
For ‘The Man in the Mountain’, she links with avantgarde Nordic composer Arve Henriksen on traditional tune ‘The Lark in the Clear Air’. The result is so pure it’s like a prayer, a gentle meditation. You wouldn’t expect the trumpet to feature on such a track, but Henriksen experimentally uses trumpet and electronics to spin and weave across seven minutes in tribute to the well known Samuel Ferguson ballad.
For two other tracks, McVittie collaborates with electronic duo Isan (namely Robin Saville and Anthony Ryan). Both tunes are outstanding. ‘Eileen Aroon’ is a fourteenth-century folk tune – given a twenty-first-century makeover. It’s beautiful work, as is ‘Falling for Icarus’. Described as the original sun-worshiping anthem, here McVittie adopts nuclear fusion as a metaphor for love. It works.
The title track, ‘The Man in the Mountain’ explores the legend of Finn McCool, using a rich tapestry of harp, drones, and soft vocals, like a gentle mountain morning mist.
McVittie’s music has the heart of the land and the soul of the poet. It takes music that gets under the skin – the closest I can describe is a soul-fuelled meditation of mood and mystery. Which is no surprise when you consider that McVittie’s deep love and knowledge of Irish folk song. It whispers to the Celtic soul, it speaks to something deep within that psyche. No surprise then either that McVittie borrows from the works of the great poets in her compositions.
Borrowing from ancient myths and cosmology, McVittie’s compositions feature literary references from Siegfried Sasson (Glamour Obscures Her Gaze), Pablo Neruda (Secretly, Between the Shadow and the Soul), William Wordsworth (So Be It When I Shall Grow Old), and Henry Williamson Strange and Forgotten Things of the Moor).
With so many different styles and influences juxtaposed, artistically referenced and intelligently refined, this album clearly defines Bróna McVittie as a true talent. True to form, brave and individualistic, McVittie’s ethereal sound and honest integrity sets it apart. No wonder then that she’s called on to perform at the National Concert hall in Dublin, the Glasgow Royal Concert Hall (Celtic Connections) and has garnered praise from the US and Canada.
A final word goes to the opening track ‘The Green Man’, which sets the scene, and henceforth we know that this is a tribute to nature, the many-faced god of ages.