Orkney: Symphony Of The Magnetic North (The Magnetic North) #NNR7
It has already been seven days since, in our rejection of the gray monotony and the dictates of modern life, we’ve chosen to wander, almost in the medieval sense of the word, from one work to another, across genres, and eras, striving to highlight certain timeless aspects of music that allow us to discover or rediscover the thirty albums of this No November Rain, all with the pleasure found in gathering around the talking tree and sharing. So, on this seventh day, we’ve chosen to let a country speak even more than its people. More precisely, we’re focusing on landscapes, shaped by humans, by history, by myths and legends, but also, and above all, by nature.
The goal is by no means a change of scenery, but rather a return to one’s roots, a homecoming, with its share of questions and a sense of wonder tinged with a touch of nostalgia. Part map, part journal, the album we’re presenting today, Orkney: Symphony of the Magnetic North by The Magnetic North, defies categorization. An emotional, geographical, and musical journey to the Orkney Islands, the birthplace of this project’s visionary, Erland Cooper, the album reexamines belonging, memory, cultural transmission, and the fundamental role that one’s homeland plays as a point of origin. Erland, a native of Stromness, recounts having dreamed of Betty Corrigall, a young 18th-century Orcadian woman who became a local legend after taking her own life following an out-of-wedlock pregnancy and rejection by her community. Upon waking, he jotted down a series of song ideas related to the Orkneys and proposed to Simon Tong (The Verve, Blur, Gorillaz, The Good, the Bad & the Queen) that they turn them into a full album. Why not?
A word of warning to the listener: you cannot enter this symphony, where the most enchanting and subtle orchestrations blend with ethereal electronic music, without a guide. The title, however, comes from a book published in 1932, Orkney: The Magnetic North by J. Gunn, a blend of travel guide, travelogue, and historical account of the archipelago. It’s no surprise, then, that the tracks on this album reference specific real-life locations (Old Man of Hoy, Netherton’s Teeth…). Each composition thus serves as a journey into the heart of the region, bringing the listener into contact with the cliffs, the wind, the sea, the islands, and even ancient tombs, places where the elements themselves are active participants in reality. One can’t help but think of Simon Marsden’s photographic work… and this is no joke, because the DIY artist Erland Cooper, while he recorded much of the album in his family home or in the church on Hoy, took this immersion a step further by recording some vocals in a Neolithic burial chamber (The Dwarfie Stane), carved into the rock, which offers unique acoustics that transcend time. It’s a way of exploring the impact that the past and history continue to have on the present and on ourselves.
From a musical standpoint, The Magnetic North also features numerous musicians alongside the founding members, including, to ground the sound, the local Stromabank Pub Choir, but above all Hannah Peel, the cornerstone of the trio and the true revelation of this album, who has since become one of the most respected orchestrators in the United Kingdom. Responsible for the album’s strings and brass, she brings a cinematic dimension to the whole, reinforcing the impression that this journey through space and time is a soundtrack. Not a single track on the album will leave you unmoved. This album is at once as monumental as a menhir and as intimate as the unspoken. Every mound speaks to every inch of skin, every wave to every thought, every note to every step, and the whole delights the heart just as much as the mind. It is grand and beautiful, subtle and deeply human.
Completely defying categorization, with its blend of classical elements, electronic music, and the folk sounds of the vast northern moors, Orkney: Symphony Of The Magnetic North takes its place in our selection as a brilliant and timeless manifesto that takes its time to speak to us about heritage, transmission, and memory. To embrace and evoke the long span of time, something we claim to no longer have today. Yet it’s obvious to anyone who’s ever made this journey: you won’t return unscathed. And the next time you return, whether in a dream or in reality, to the paths you once walked, to your homeland, we can be sure that the Orkney Islands will resonate deeply within your own landscapes, as well as in the depths of your being, and that a symphony will in turn be heard, where every stone and every bend in the path will take on the air of a challenge within the vast labyrinth of memory.
Comments