Mary Ann is an award-winning musician and one of Scotland's foremost contemporary Gaelic singers. To make her creation for the Northword project, Mary Ann and her husband Nick chose a story A Song for Lighthouse Bill – a song by a former lighthouse keeper, telling about his career following the transition to the fully automated lighthouse system in Scotland.  

Choosing this story, they were inspired to create a piece of biomusic - experimental music using sounds found in the natural world, and to produce an accompanying film. Mary Ann and Nick embarked on field trips around the Scottish isles of Tiree, at Sanna Bay, and at Skerryvore, to record the sounds, followed by studio work to create the sound and the video for the story. The resulting video was shown to Bill’s grandson.

Following the project, Mary Ann and Nick engaged in many activities, including launching a broadcast media company Watercolour Music, and featuring in BBC Alba documentary Rurachd.

Read more about Mary Ann’s creation on Northword website. 

Image credit: Still from the film, by Mary Ann Kennedy.