Description
A first solo album from Karen Marshalsay, a highly accomplished player all three Scottish harps.
Karen features the warm sounding modern gut-strung levered harp, the clear ringing wire-strung clarsach of the Highlands and Gaelic culture and the bray harp from the Renaissance and Baroque period with it’s sitar-like buzz. She also plays whistle on one track, across the album.
Deeply influenced by the piping tradition and particularly pibroch, Karen has honed her style through playing with Allan MacDonald of the famous Glenuig piping family, and in Boys of the Lough founder Cathal McConnell’s trio.
Karen’s passion for pipe music is highlighted in the pibroch, The Battle of the Bridge of Perth (Ceann Drochaid Pheairt) with its phrasing closely resembling piping techniques, and in the classic 6/8 pipe march PM Donald MacLean of Lewis.
Her compositional talent materialises on tunes written for people and places, including Helen’s Farewell, Isabel Gow’s Welcome to Edinburgh and The Road to Kennacraig itself.
The album was recorded at Temple Studios and produced by Robin Morton.
