islands of the north
From film score to album
The solo piano album Islands of the North is strongly influenced by Jessica’s experience of living and travelling in the north of Scotland, in places where the sea and the weather are ever-present, powerful forces. Danz moved to the Isle of Lewis in mid-2016, after a year of travelling and exploring a series of northern islands including the Faroe Islands, Orkney, and the Outer Hebrides. The following year she was commissioned by An Lanntair arts centre to create a live piano score for a showing of Loftur Guðmundsson's 1925 Icelandic documentary Ísland í lifandi myndum (Iceland in Moving Pictures). Depicting scenes of farming, fishing and city life, through to the spectacular waterfalls and dramatic oceans of Iceland, the film shows the strong relationship between Scandinavia and the Outer Hebrides. The work was premiered at the 2017 Faclan Festival, and in 2018 an installation version was included in the exhibition SSA & VAS at the Royal Scottish Academy.
"The selection is completed by Jessica Danz, commissioned by An Lanntair in collaboration with the Icelandic film archive to re-score an early Icelandic documentary film. Ísland í lifandi myndum could have been shot in the Outer Hebrides, such is the relationship between the two locations. Rather than being at the edge, the work reflects the notion of the art of the Hebrides as being at the centre of an arc which reaches north through the Faroe Islands, Iceland and Scandinavia."
-RSA exhibition catalogue
Danz revised the score in 2018 to create a full length solo piano suite, which she recorded at Black Bay Studio on the Isle of Great Bernera. Black Bay - once an old fish processing factory - has been transformed into a state-of-the-art recording studio situated on the edge of a working harbour. The work was performed on a beautiful Bechstein piano (circa 1930), and the album aims to capture a sound that celebrates the unique character of the instrument as well as evoking something of the silent film era.
Islands of the North is available exclusively on Bandcamp.