Garefowl

180 years ago, four men from St Kilda, a now-uninhabited island lying in the Atlantic Ocean 50 miles west of the Outer Hebrides, killed the last great auk (or “garefowl”) in the UK, believing the strange bird to be a witch. Ewan Macdonald and his father Murdo – relatives of one of the men who killed the great auk, Lachlan MacKinnon - conceived the album as a project to reflect on this family history and consider the lessons that the extinction of the great auk has for our own age. Garefowl is an international collective of seven musicians with backgrounds in electronic, folk, experimental and early music. Combining eerie textured string sounds with brooding electronic soundscapes and beats, Garefowl blend acoustic and electronic instruments to create bold and evocative reinterpretations of traditional St Kildan melodies sourced from archive recordings and manuscript collections. All arrangement and recording was completed during the coronavirus lockdown, with musicians collaborating remotely. The cover art is “The Living Wall- Guillemot Cliffs” by Uist-based artist Cally Yeatman. Praise for Garefowl Cerys Matthews, BBC Radio 6: “a very special thing” Mark Radcliffe, BBC Radio 2: “a fascinating thing…a really atmospheric record” The National: “as intriguing as St Kilda’s history” Mike Harding: “amazing…atmospheric…a masterpiece”