the fowl that by no means flew, Glasgow Cathedral

Last 12 months, British-Finnish musician Hanna Tuulikki launched the bats for her Hospitalfield-commissioned present Echo In The Dark – basically a bat rave with digital music mixing the human voice and bat echolocation calls. Now she’s away with the birds, partnering once more with sound designer Tommy Perman for a Historic Environment Scotland fee which references the miracles of Glasgow’s patron saint St Mungo proper within the coronary heart of his old ’hood.

Taking its title from the poem impressed by the town’s coat of arms, the fowl that by no means flew is a spine-tingling music cycle for 3 voices, delivered towards an immersive soundtrack of sampled birdsong and digital drones, which performed out as an avian alarm name of local weather disaster from a succession of endangered woodland species.

Tuulikki’s fellow songbirds have been acclaimed Gaelic vocalist Mischa Macpherson and Glasgow-based voice artist and composer Lucy Duncombe, who harmonised elegantly with realizing glances, just like the Bulgarian choirs whose conventional lamentations have been evoked by Tuulikki’s rating.

The trio have been dramatically dressed like three artwork punk craws with fancy crepe plumage and flashes of crimson, and there was a easy however arresting ritualistic attract to their nonetheless, dignified efficiency which drew on the traditions of sacred music, devotional incantation and Nordic ululation to create a neo-classical protest piece, ranging in tone from pressing staccato clamour (“under attack, what do we do? stand up and fight back”) to hovering unhappiness.

The atmospheric acoustics and brooding backdrop of the Cathedral solely enhanced this particular efficiency, one which deserves repeating so long as ears are closed to dire environmental forecasts. As the gloaming mild light exterior, the crepuscular cry – “dear green place, we cannot flourish on a dead planet” – rang out with a cappella energy and arms raised in supplication.