See, Salt and Sound

Blue Salt Collective at Aberdeen's multi-arts festival

Friday 19 September 2008
Beach Ballroom, Aberdeen

Knotbrook Taylor, Catriona Yule and Haworth Hodgkinson, the founding members of the Blue Salt Collective, together with dancer Mhairi Allan presented a full evening's performance for the first time in Aberdeen.

The programme featured poetry readings accompanied by projected visual images, dance, and live music from Haworth Hodgkinson, with technical support by David Liddell.

Also incorporated into the programme were poems by Ross Malcolm, Fraser Cowie and Bryony Harrower, winners in the three age categories of the Poem in the Sand competition, judged by the Blue Salt Collective.

There was a quality of magic about this performance. Maybe it was the big moon reflected in the sea, maybe it was the setting. Whatever the reason, the performers seemed suffused with some inner light which communicated itself to the good-sized and appreciative audience. Haworth's music, from his extraordinary collection of instruments, weaved its haunting and mysterious path through the evening like hallucinogenic smoke. Knotbrook was positively terrifying in his rendering of ‘Bar Shark’, his words swimming with deadly intent among the watchers as if seeking out their next victim. By way of gentle contrast, Catriona provided us with a selection of evocative and poignant poetry while Mhairi distilled both music and verse into movement, all performed against a changing backdrop of striking visual imagery.

Martin Walsh