Taigh Chearsabhagh’s award-winning musician-in-residence has been nominated for a prestigious Ivor Novello Award for the second year in a row.

Dr Duncan Macleod of the University of Nottingham, last month picked up first prize at the Audio Walk Awards in Berlin for Machair, an audio guide that explores the traditions and ecology of Uist’s machair in Benbecula.

Now, he has been selected as an Ivor Novello Award finalist in the ‘Best Sound Art’ category for his soundwalk composition Orasaigh. 

The geolocative acousmatic sound walk composition was developed in 2023 as part of the exhibition Orasaigh, a collaboration between poet Steve Ely, photographer Michael Faint, and composer Duncan MacLeod. 

Last year, his sound walk Machair was nominated in the same category for the Ivors Classical Awards.

Dr MacLeod commented: “I’m deeply honoured to be nominated for an Ivor Novello Award at The Ivors Classical Awards – being acknowledged by fellow composers and sound artists through The Ivors Academy is truly humbling. 

“It has been a great privilege to work with Steve Ely’s evocative poem, and I’m immensely grateful to Taigh Chearsabhagh Museum and Arts Centre for commissioning this project, along with the University of Nottingham AHRC Impact Accelerator award, without which this work would not have been possible.”

Ely’s visionary poem, while always remaining anchored on the island, roams widely, exploring a range of themes related to Uist and the wider world—sea level rise, the crisis of the ‘sixth extinction,’ history, culture, politics, conflict, and class. Faint and MacLeod vividly capture the spirit of the place through their respective mediums, creating an independent yet complementary subjectivity.

As with Ely’s poem, the soundwalk is rooted in the landscape through the presence of soundscape compositions, utilising immersive field recordings captured on location. Elsewhere, material for bass clarinet and highland bagpipes, along with creative reimagining of archival sound recordings from Uist, draws upon the Isles’ rich musical heritage through Gaelic song and pibroch (an art music genre associated with the great Highland Bagpipe).

Orasaigh can be streamed online at https://soundcloud.com/duncan-macleod/orasaigh

The Ivor Classical Awards ceremony will take place on Tuesday, November 12, at BFI Southbank in London.