South Horn music

The chorus heads into the horn

Yesterday was horn music day  with the acoustics of the South Horn being thoroughly tested. Not the actual fog horn which stopped sounding in 1984 but the building that houses it. The main room is nearly round with a very high roof giving it a very distinctive acoustics and for a long time we have been wanting to do some recording there. The planets have alined and finally we have managed to get together the team of shag PhD student and amazing singer Jenny Sturgeon,  whiz kid sound engineer Gavin McDougall and all time great fiddler Jonny Hardie of many different bands fame. Last night the dream team locked themselves into the horn for an hour, laid down 4 tracks, all with themes linked to the island,  and then asked the rest of the island inhabitants in to do some backing singing.

The ceiling of the horn showing the nearly circular shape of the room.

After starting off making sounds that diverted shipping we were knocked into shape and inspired by the artists and the building managed to get something down on tape. After that things became more relaxed and we had another magical evening listening to fabulous music while the wind boomed and rattled around the horn and gulls yelled. We finished up with a miniature ceilidh for six and left the horn musing of how many times in the past lighthouse keepers had made use of the special building for their own entertainment just as we had.

The night turns into a ceilidh.

A magical sunset outside the horn

  The results will be worked over the next few weeks but we hope to have some Isle of May South Horn music for people to listen to by late summer / autumn so watch this space and we will keep you posted.