Soundtrack to Elisabeth Flett's ethnographic short, One Year On.
Composed, played and mixed by Elisabeth Flett
(Bass recorder, tenor recorder, alto recorder, Sea flute and synths)

One Year On: Soundtrack

A track written for As Far North As Anything Grows, a film made by Jenny Sturgeon in collaboration with NLS

Winter in Shetland

Written, recorded and mixed by Elisabeth Flett

In memory of Belinda Sykes

Carve Your Own Path (Belinda's Tune)

Inspired by Scottish folklore, in this song Elisabeth Flett imagines a young princess in a faraway land broken hearted over the betrayal of her one true love. A witch herself, she goes to the wicked sorceress who lives at the edge of the woods in the hope that she might be able to help her romantic woes. Offered a potion with the promise that if she drinks it her true love will once more be hers, she eagerly consumes it- then discovers she's been turned into a crawling insect, destined to be the slave of the sorceress for a hundred years...

Woman No More

Finite Hope

Miraculous Cure

Bone Deep Demo

The Harold Complex Audiobook

Composed by: Chris Wood
Arranged, recorded and mixed by: Elisabeth Flett

Performed by Elisabeth Flett (medieval fiddle, vocals, percussion)

Lyrics

The Hodening Hoss, the Marbury Dunn, Old Bone Face the Deathless am I
Heavy with foal, two thousand years, bridled with sorrow, saddled with fear 
I canter through pastures of tremble and quake, I gallop the track between sleep and awake 
Seeking the deep of welcome and stint for my tears 

The Mare-headed Queen, the Mari Lloyd, I was mother of all of the herds
Ten thousand years my shining foals, bridled with starlight, saddled with gold 
I leapt the divide between living and dead, I quickened each year with a toss of my head, seeking the deep of beauty and never grew old

But Mother of God, the Mary Mild, the Pregnant Virgin came
Bursting with Jehovah Seed, entered my stable cried out her need
With ropes I was dragged from the birthing straw, aching with foal I was heaved to the door, swapping warmth for bitter weather, and the birth of a rival creed

And now I'm nightmare, I'm rattling womb, the Uffington Wraith I've become, forced into dark you've made me a fiend, bridled with shadow saddled with scream 
From window to window traversing the night, my face in your glass in a shudder of light 
Seeking the deep of welcome, befitting a queen 
Let me in once again, let me in...

Mari Lwyd

When creating a theatre show, the creator must be prepared to cut things they're rather proud of - even if it's a whole song!

This is the backing track for 'Up in the Morning', one of the songs that didn't end up in the final version of my Dundee Wighton Centre commissioned piece, 'Christina'. Listen, enjoy, and imagine what might have been happening onstage...

Christina: Up in the Morning Demo

Written during 2020's CreativiTay Online Festival, this piece imagines me standing on the shoreline, looking out to Tentsmuir forest surrounded by memories and ghosts of my former selves.

All viola, fiddle and recorder parts written, recorded and mixed by Elisabeth Flett

Tentsmuir

Written during Jenny Sturgeon's songwriting workshop in May 2020. 

Lyrics:

Blackbird, blackbird, show me a sign, sing me a line of your evergreen song 
And jackdaws and magpies and sparrows so small and all the birds I cannot recall 
I miss the sounds of you all 

The birds always knew when something was wrong 
You could hear it in their song
Warning that something  had arrived that did not belong 

Blackbird, blackbird… 

The birds always knew when something was wrong 
Fluttering wings and uneasy calls 
They chittered and chattered and waited for dawn 

The birds always knew when to be gone 
A dark wind is coming rustling the lawns  and hedgerows and gardens and ending up here 
But one day we hope the birds might reappear 

Blackbird… 

I miss the sounds of you all...

Written, arranged, recorded and mixed by Elisabeth Flett
Produced by TrainTrack Productions

Fluttering Wings

Safe enough here you're safe enough
safe enough here so don't complain
the night may hold a hundred fears and you may cry a thousand tears
but they'll be dry by daylight my dear 'cause you're safe enough here

safe enough here, you're safe enough
safe enough here so don't complain
for though you know those with tales to tell the official story is all is well
so wave a flag and shout love is love
and make believe that you're fine because it's safe enough here

Not safe enough to hold hands at night or for governments to truly protect our rights
we're mostly accepted through gritted teeth
and sometimes beaten
but safe sometimes is better than not safe at all, and this country is better than most after all

safe enough, is it safe enough, is it safe enough here?
credits
releases June 29, 2020
Written, arranged, performed, recorded and mixed by Elisabeth Flett


Safe Enough is Track 1 on Flett's upcoming EP, 'Barbed Wire Goodbyes'
Produced by TrainTrack Productions

Safe Enough (Single)

Elisabeth Flett is an award winning Scottish multi-instrumentalist, theatre-maker and writer. 

Winner of the GSMD 2017 Rose Lawrence Academic Award and the 2021 University of Aberdeen Literary Lights Creative Writing Award, Elisabeth now enjoys a career full of writing and research as well as performing, studying on the MLitt course in Scottish Ethnology and Folklore at the Elphinstone Institute (2020-2021) and giving talks on folklore subjects, including queer-coding in traditional folksong (Queer Online Folk Festival 2021).

Currently based in Aberdeen, Elisabeth reached the semi-finals of BBC Radio Scotland Young Traditional Musician of the Year 2021 and is a member of a number of bands and ensembles such as London-based folk trio Solasta, (Guardian Folk Album of the Month September 2018), folk duo Shamblestone (BBC Radio 2 Young Folk Awards Semi-Finalists 2017), LGBTQ+ folk collective Bogha-Frois (Celtic Connections 2019/20) and medieval folk ensemble Joglaresa (Beverly Early Music Festival 2019).

She hosted the podcast “15 Minutes With: The Quick-Fire Podcast About Women in Folk Music” (2019-20) and has written, produced and performed three successful solo theatre shows under the production name TRAINTRACK PRODUCTIONS (‘ROOTS’, Edinburgh Fringe 2019, Dundee Wighton Centre-funded ‘Christina’ and 'The Hammer of the Cailleach Bheur', Taibhsear Collective Online Winter Festival 2021)

Elisabeth Flett

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