The Island Tapes
Premiered in January 2006 at Celtic Connections in Glasgow, “The Island Tapes” features original live music to silent films from the Scottish Screen Archive depicting life on St Kilda, Harris, Skye, Orkney and Shetland in the 1920s and 30s, plus a sixth film exploring Scottish emigration to North America.
Alongside David Allison, the mastermind of the venture and an acclaimed experimental guitarist, is Scotland’s foremost classical guitarist Allan Neave, the Berlin-based fingerstyle maestro Ian Melrose and the superb Gaelic singer Alyth McCormack.
Celtic Connections’ Colin Hynd made the project his “Director’s Choice” and the Sunday Herald picked it out as one of the ten shows you must see. BBC Four TV filmed a performance of the St Kilda film and the premiere sold out on the night. And the critics gave it the thumbs up too. Since then “The Island Tapes” has toured Germany, played at film festivals in Estonia and Inverness, as well as performances in the United States, France and across the UK.
“The Island Tapes” with recorded soundtrack has played as a feature in cinemas including the Glasgow Film Theatre and the project is now available as a combined CD-DVD release.
“A full 90-minute show of the highest quality, brilliantly executed by top-class performers.”
Robert Dawson Scott, The Times
“David Allison’s project, combining first-rate playing and singing with vintage film of Harris, Skye, Orkney, Shetland and St Kilda, made for an engaging evening.”
Jim Gilchrist, The Scotsman
"The Island Tapes represents a quite extraordinary emotional journey in both image and sound, and these special and valuable recordings will grace the music collections of all who are as interested in Scotland's recent history as they are in her music. This is a very important recording."
Debbie Koritsas - The Living Tradition