Peaks: Cladach / Mullach

Peaks: Cladach / Mullach |

Outer Hebrides Tour | May 2025

Peaks is the musical partnership between violinist George Smith and cellist Duncan Strachan, one half of the internationally renowned Maxwell Quartet. Their latest project, titled ‘Cladach/Mullach’ (Shore/Summit) is a through-composed work for acoustic instruments and recorded samples, based on an old folk tale describing how music first came to the Western Isles of Scotland.

The story tells of how a young man discovers a stringed instrument washed up on the shore, which makes a beautiful sound when the wind blows across the strings. He is unable to play it himself, so his mother turns to a sgoil-dubh (place of black magic) to give her soul in exchange for her son’s ability to play it. However, upon learning that this is what she has done, the boy can only ever play melancholy music on the instrument.

Smith and Strachan have taken this story and woven together a magical 50-minute soundscape which describes the landscapes of the western isles, both bleak and beautiful, through music. Incorporating traditional music forms and post-minimalist string textures, the piece is a mesmerising journey which reflects on tradition, the passing on of stories and the connection of music to the land.

The work was originally commissioned for Magic Mountain festival on the Isle of Skye in 2024. It will be toured across the West of Scotland recorded in 2025 on the Isle of Skye.