The Kilmartin Sessions

The Kilmartin Sessions – Sound of Ancient Scotland .  In 1997 Rachel and David Clough of Kilmartin House commissioned John Purser to produce a CD entitled ‘The Kilmartin Sessions – The sounds of Ancient Scotland’. The launch of this album coincided with the opening of the Kilmartin House Museum in Argyle, Scotland in May 1998. The recordings feature musical instruments and landscapes that have their origins in ancient and prehistoric Scotland and Ireland. Ancient Music Ireland had previously made a reproduction Bronze Age horn and crotal for the exhibition at the Museum. Simon O’Dwyer subsequently contributed compositions on stone whistles, bronze horns and trumpets, bodhrán and vocals to the ‘The Kilmartin Sessions’ CD.

A couple of pieces that continue to be included in many television documentary soundtracks are the duets composed by Dwyer and Purser. These tunes incorporate pairs of bronze horns and trumpets plus powerful overtone singing recorded in the Hamilton Mausoleum in Glasgow. (a building with the longest reverb!). On this ground-breaking recording, O’Dwyer also sings a version of Psalm 44 using sub-harmonic voice in St. Oran’s Chapel on Iona, Scotland.

Samples