Andrew Michael Clucas's 'Forvie Lullabies' is a suite of lullabies about life in coastal Aberdeenshire, backing onto the sands of Forvie.

 

Part 1 is available to free download and play from above player or if you like bandcamp you can buy (see link above) and also it's on all other online streaming platforms.

 

Please feel free to play the accompanying youtube bundle of short films, which has been embedded on this page above.. ​​​

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Links above.

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Background;​

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It started with an idea, to create a suite of lullabies. I couldn’t quite nail what the theme of the album would be, until one day.............. I was in my garden, which backs onto the sands of Forvie and I knew any day the pink footed geese would be arriving back for the winter, which would be the moment summer turns to autumn, and a melody jumped into my head. I rushed into the house and wrote it down. 2 days later, I was walking around the back of Forvie and the geese arrived and I recorded them there and then. That was the first track 'As summer turns to Autumn- part 1'. Part 2 swiftly followed, as did about 16 other melodies, all relating to an emotion summoned up by an event or place relating to my life here, at Forvie and Collieston village.

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'Forvie Lullabies' was born. All 18 tracks may be some time in making, so Part 1 is being released first!

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The history of Forvie (the village and it's farm land disappeared under a fierce sand storm 700 years ago) fascinates me, but in essence I just wanted to capture the emotions of living 'hear' in tunes and have therefore added some field music to enhance the experience!.

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I’ve tried to make the arrangements fit the topic; For example, the awkward but amazingly beautiful way pink footed geese land was reflected in the way the melodica was played in a tumbling manner and in a waltz timing.

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I also wanted this suite of songs to sound natural, so I avoided the cliques of ambient music (choirs, synths etc). To achieve this I set myself one of those ridiculously unnecessary challenges (but it seemed like a good idea, at the time) to only use; my voice, 3 strings of a classical guitar (yes only 3!?), a melodica and strings, with the hope that would be acoustically pleasing. I played all the instruments myself except the double bass on As summer turns to Autumn, by the amazing Roberto Cassani and I also broke the rules occasionally (I devilishly used an auto harp!) xx. 

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I have tried to work with the natural environment and seasons and importantly recognise and celebrate them.

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Production (for those into that) has been kept very simple, little of the volume up's and down's, I much prefer listening in silence or in a car, where the volume of music drifts to reflect the song arrangement.

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Thanks for popping by. This is dedicated to my late father Michael Clucas. xx