Iorram

Iorram (Boat Song) begins with electro-washes of ambient sound, swooping back and forth, as if in the process of self assembly, the hint of a bow-struck string, and then the voice of a man, a Gaelic voice, a now long-dead man, recorded on magnetic tape in the middle of the last century, before the shape of the fiddle’s music becomes clear, with a punctuating guitar line to accompany it through that misty electronic wash.

Iorram is a documentary feature directed by Alastair Cole and made entirely in the Gaelic language – a world first – and for which Lau’s Aidan O’Rourke has written this hypnotic and evocative score. It’s a portrait of the fishing communities of the Outer Hebrides – O’Rourke himself grew up on the west coast of Scotland – with the film journeying into the heart of an ancient community struggling to preserve its identity, against the sustaining and ravaging sea and the equally ravaging currents of economic globalism. O’Rourke is joined by folk, jazz and contemporary classical players including cellist Lucy Railton, Brìghde Chaimbeul on Scottish smallpipes, and guitarist Graeme Stephen, whose fingerwork is strikingly good throughout. The 12 tracks ooze a sense of place that is far from most of our familiar places.