Caroline Bergvall has devised a powerful and moving performance combining music, text and voices in ritualised outdoor locations to reconnect audiences to time, place and each other. Ragadawn also brings together conversations recorded in the UK and Europe with writers and singers of multiple minoritarian or pressured languages, including Gaelic. The vocal composition at the heart of the work is composed by the British Composer Gavin Bryars and performed by soprano Peyee Chen. Working with Bryars has ensured the presence of a cross-historical vocal strand that combines his long-standing interest in early vocal music and ancient European languages. Live electronic musician Verity Susman has created the Dawn Chorus of languages: a multilingual layering of voices as well as conversational snippets and outbursts that inhabit the performance. Live sound engineer Sam Grant has devised the site-specific listening set-up.
RAGADAWN
During 2017, Bergvall embarked on a period of research into the multi-linguist components of the work. As part of this, ATLAS Arts hosted a Language Station at Sabhal Mòr Ostaig, one of several happening across Europe. Those featured were, Rhona Coogan, Decker Forrest, Rody Gorman and Morag Henricksen.
