With royalties going to Marine Conservation and a dedication to a late friend, ‘WhaleSong Sounding’ is a love song for whales, and it is a sound so effervescently powered by a profound sense of love that it feels genuinely nice just being in the presence of.
Based in Dundee, the United Kingdom, Lowland Folk are a folk family group that have deep and long roots. Composed of founder Stewart Brown and his brother Ramsay, and wife Anne, alongside Phillip Gore and Alan Barty. The group have already put forward 3 albums and were signed to EMI, before founding their own label, Balaena Records, and clearly from the name, focusing their music and attention more on the graceful marine giants.
‘WhaleSong Sounding’ came to be years after Stewart Brown met the late Sir Peter Scott and his wife through having written songs about Sir Scott’s father’s ill-fated ship PRS Discovery. Sir Scott asked Stewart and Anne Brown to write a song in support of the whales of the world, and this is the product years after.
The piece of ambient music starts with the chilling whale song the group have acquired rights to use from the Ocean Alliance. The music then starts with haunting, serene vibraphone-like pads, and grandiose, ambient and marine string arrangements. Stewart Brown’s delivery is heartfelt, and his presence palpably gives the music a sense of gravity, like a patriarch telling his family a gripping story from an illustrious past.
‘WhaleSong Sounding’ is a delicate and touching tribute to a friendship and to one of the planet’s most mystifying animals. A song as graceful as the whales it is written in love of, Lowland Folk have created something quite magical.