Concept to reality
Numerous musicians, poets and photographers spent part of the summer of 2013 visiting the eight selected areas. Alice and Emma travelled to the locations and Alice created videos of the trips and performances, or made videos to accompany the music.
Among the poets involved was Laureen Johnson, who went to the magnificent cliffs of Eshaness. In one of the project's videos, Laureen recalls the visit.
“The thing I mind best about it was that it was a most beautiful day, an awful suitable day for Eshaness, because it was sunny, it was dry, the ground as usual was lovely to walk on – that's a really good thing about Eshaness. And also, there was a bit of wind, enough wind to make waves, rolling and spray lashing around. And really, the sea, I think we saw it at its best. I canna mind, myself, being at Eshaness on a better day. And another thing is, you're just right on the edge, you really feel that this is the edge of the world, almost, and out beyond you is nothing but sea for hundreds of miles.”
One of the bands inspired by their journey was The Revellers, who spent a weekend walking and performing in the northernmost island of Unst. The group, originally formed out of admiration for The Levellers, has gone on to become one of Shetland's longest-established and most popular bands and the "rock with fiddles" sound has gone down very well. Their concerts invariably sell out. Band member Lewie Peterson and his colleagues found the experience really valuable.
“At the time, we said yes just because it sounded like a really novel idea. You don't know when you're going to get that kind of chance. It did sound a bit mad, actually, something really different to what we'd done before. The walk was really nice, the whole band was together for the whole time, and we got a really nice sense of the place and the people. As we did the project, and after we came back from Unst, everything made sense as to why we have Back from Beyond.
“We were all buzzing afterwards and feeling inspired, and really proud of what we were doing. Usually, when we write songs as a band, somebody comes with an idea and people maybe develop it together afterwards, whereas because we all went to Hermaness and we all heard the same things and saw the same things, we were all coming at it at the same time. It's become the most collaborative piece of work that we've done.”
Another of the bands, Haltadans, went to Foula, and their adventures are also recorded in another of Alice Mullay's videos, Foula Transit. She says:
“For the band, the idea of going to Foula and having the time to create new material has been really good for them, because they're saying, "Oh, I think we want to make an album", and they're quite a new band. So, for them, it's like a turning point. I think the Foula folk really appreciated the dance in the hall, and there's a few folk in Foula who are musicians and I think it was genuinely a very special thing for them, because if people are visiting, they're often quite separate.”