Open… - Katherine Wren and Pete Stollery 

Deer Tracks - Joe Stollery 

Grain - Pete Stollery 

The New Forest - Charles Ross 

The New Bridge - Frozen Solitude - Katherine Wren and Pete & Joe Stollery 

The Old Bridge - Muckle Spate - Katherine Wren and Pete Stollery 

Alluvial Fan - Dissipation - The Birds Return - Katherine Wren and Joe Stollery 

Bonnie Glen Quoich - Paul Anderson, arr. Katherine Wren and Pete Stollery 

…close. - Pete Stollery

On A Wing and A Prayer – Deeside is the second in Nordic Viola’s series of performances exploring ecological change as the world undergoes climate change. Devised by violist Katherine Wren, it is in three parts, the first part having taken place in Shetland with percussionist/composer Renzo Spiteri and the third in Western Scotland with composer Lisa Robertson. For this second iteration of the series, Katherine chose to work with me and my son Joe Stollery. The majority of the performance comprises a collaboration between the three of us along with music by Charles Ross and Paul Anderson.

Katherine Wren writes, “Each stage of the project takes place in an area that means a lot to me personally but, more importantly, I want to work with composers who live in those areas and to talk to people living and working in the project area. Pete and Joe have lived in Aberdeenshire for many years. After discussing many possible sites for our research, we decided to base ourselves in Braemar in January2024 and to explore how Glen Quoich and the Upper Dee catchment had changed in the aftermath of Storm Frank in 2015, the first year in which storms were named in the UK. By some strange coincidence, the winter of 2024 saw the greatest number of named storms since that wild winter of 2015. Ironically, we were treated to some very still, snowy weather during our residency, though the river went into spate soon after we left. Or maybe it wasn’t so ironic, as we were also very interested in exploring how nature has recovered since Storm Frank with an increase in wading birds and also in how the woodlands are regenerating on the Mar Lodge Estate.”

Most of the sounds were recorded during our three-day residency in Braemar in January 2024. They are presented over eight loudspeakers which surround the audience in order to provide a kind of sonic immersion where the sound is witnessed from within. Sometimes the sound will seem to come from everywhere at once, and sometimes from specific places but the dynamic nature of the movement of the sound is designed to allow the audience to perceive it from a different viewpoint (hearpoint?), not as if it were merely happening in front of you.

Open…, the sound of a tiny stream we discovered on our way up to the Quoich gradually fills the space, enveloping the audience before a discernible note slowly rises from the texture. Grain is a short study on the sonic characteristics and behaviours of water, its graininess, its dynamic movement, with hints of what lies under the water. The New Bridge – Frozen Solitude explores the coldness of the place and Muckle Spate charts an imaginary journey through the water at the height of Storm Frank, gradually settling into Alluvial Fan - Dissipation - The Birds Return.