Embedding the island in music production on the Isle of Eigg

Abstract

Over the last four decades a number of recording studios have been developed on small islands. The first group of these were in warm water locales, exploiting the standard appeal of the tropics as places of rest and tranquillity. More recently a number of studios have developed in cold water islands, promoting the natural environment (and sometimes less than temperate weather) as encouraging reflection and creativity. This article analyses one aspect of the latter, in the form of the Visitations artist: in:residency programme run by Lost Map Records on the Scottish Isle of Eigg. Several of the musicians who have participated in residencies collected sounds from around Eigg that were embedded in original compositions. This has involved the extension of the studio space into the landscape in a process that stands in contrast to the traditional role of studios to insulate recordings from the external world. This article identifies that the first series of Visitations residences produced musical engagements with Eigg that represent the emotional geographies experienced by the musicians in relation to the landscape, providing more locally grounded projects than those produced in more traditional studios on warm water islands