The North Atlantic islands of St Kilda have been an inspiration to artists of every discipline since the inhabitants asked to be evacuated from their increasingly arduous existence on the most remote outpost of the British Isles in 1930, leaving a candle burning in every home and Bibles open at the start of Exodus. That story and many others are told in this worthy edition to the canon, in which singer/songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Roberts joins forces with poet Robinson, who sailed there in 2007.
His long poem, Leaving St Kilda, accompanied by harpist Corrina Hewat, is the centrepiece here, an account of his voyage with writer Karin Altenberg, and a lesson in how the vocabulary of geography can became eloquently historical. Even more pithily compelling, however, are the jointly written shorter pieces about the plants, shore debris and stories of the island, like the tale of fowler Neil MacLeod, who fell to his death from one of the treacherous stacks while foraging for food.
Instrumental support comes from bassist Stevie Jones, fiddler Rafe Fitzpatrick and the ubquitous Tom Crossley on flute and drums, as well as Hewat and former Incredible String Bandsman Robin Williamson on hardanger fiddle.
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