Ten distinctive female folk musicians from across the United Kingdom formed the complete ensemble known as Songs of Separation. Among them are the noted singers Karine Polwart and Eliza Carthy, the trio Hazel Askew, Rowan Rheingans, and Hannah James from the prize-winning English ensemble Lady Maisery, the Scottish singers and players Kate Young and Mary Macmaster, the support players Jenny Hill and Jenn Butterworth, and the New York-born, U.K.-based performer Hannah Read.
Drawn from different parts of England and Scotland, the musicians chose the Isle of Eigg in the Scottish Inner Hebrides—site of the ancient tale of the Pictish Warrior Women, often called the “Big Women of Eigg”—as the setting for their project. There they shaped a self-titled album that examined separation against the backdrop of post-independence-referendum Britain, while honoring the island’s history, culture, and language and tracing how those elements connect to the broader idea of parting.
Throughout most of June 2015 the group recorded and rehearsed on Eigg, making pilgrimages to two historic locations tied to the “Big Women of Eigg” legend and capturing field recordings that appear on the finished record. The musicians later described the journey from the mainland and the time spent on the island as granting them “a sense of space and time to really immerse themselves in exceptional music making,” and they kept followers informed by releasing a series of short films that chronicled their work. The resulting album blended longstanding folk traditions with daring, contemporary, and inventive touches, each participant contributing her singular voice so that listeners are invited to reflect on separation as it appears in everyday experience. In 2016 the ensemble embarked on a tour that took the project to audiences throughout the United Kingdom.
