Renzo Spiteri

Should lockdown encourage us to listen to our immediate surroundings in a new way? We talk to composer and sound artist Renzo Spiteri, who creates music from field recordings of the landscape near his home on Shetland.

Show Notes

A musician, composer and sound artist, Renzo Spiteri has performed at festivals across the world, working between England and Malta. He is now based in Shetland, whose landscape inspired his latest project, Stillness, described as “an immersive live performance that takes audiences on a journey through the different textures of darkness and light”. We talk to Renzo about how island life has inspired his work, and whether it has a new resonance since the lockdown. The episode is hosted by Hebridean Dark Skies Festival programmer Andrew Eaton-Lewis.  The sound was mixed by Hamish Brown. Campfire Conversations is presented in association with The Scotsman. Renzo will premiere a brand new sound piece, Under Dark Blue Skies, as part of this year's Hebridean Dark Skies Festival. To find out more about the festival, visit www.lanntair.com/darkskies.

What is Hebridean Dark Skies Festival podcast?

The Hebridean Dark Skies Festival presents a series of interviews with fascinating people from the worlds of astronomy, psychology, and the arts, exploring our festival themes of winter, darkness and the night sky. The podcasts are presented by festival director Andrew Eaton-Lewis, with sound mixed by Hamish Brown.

The Hebridean Dark Skies Festival is an ambitious annual programme of events taking place each February on the Isle of Lewis, including live music, film, visual art, theatre, astronomy talks, and stargazing. To find out more visit www.lanntair.com/darkskies.

The festival is led by An Lanntair arts centre in Stornoway in partnership with Stornoway Astronomical Society, Calanais Visitor Centre, Gallan Head Community Trust, and Lews Castle College UHI. The festival is supported by Caledonian MacBrayne, Highlands and Islands Enterprise and the Culture & Business Fund. For its first three years it was part-financed by the Scottish Government and the European Community Outer Hebrides Leader 2014-2020 programme.