Fringe by the Sea: Recomposing Earth

The Dome, North Berwick, 31/7/2026

 Christian Cargill, director, Erland Cooper, composer

“Carve the Runes, then be content with silence.”

 These words by poet George Mackay Brown (1921 – 96), carved on his gravestone in Orkney, inspired a fellow Orcadian, modern-day composer Erland Cooper, to launch an insanely brave recording experiment with his own violin concerto.

Cooper’s latest symphony ‘Sula Bassana’ is the music for Lewis Gourlay’s stunning film for FBTS ’26, premiered last week in North Berwick. But the concerto Cooper created for Mackay Brown’s centenary in 2021 was silenced at birth, literally interred. Would it resurrect?

The orchestra combined luminaries such as violinist Daniel Pioro with eager young talents. They gathered at Glasgow Conservatoire, got Cooper’s hitherto unseen score and were encouraged to discuss and develop it, suffusing it with extra life. The work was digitally recorded, mixed and mastered to top “Abbey Road” standard.

At once Cooper converted the data from digital to analogue, filling 33 minutes’ worth of reel-to-reel tape. He then pressed delete on every bit of the electronic record. He shredded all but a handful of the scores.  He drove the tape (beside him with its safety belt on) 1000 miles North to a wind-swept Orcadian heath and buried it, naked to the elements, with the score and explanation in a biscuit tin.  A violin was sacrificed to shelter these from above. To mark the spot, a modest runestone. If no-one found it, after three years he’d dig it up himself.

He considered it a planting rather than a burial. As a musician inspired by the land, he wanted his work “written and co-mastered by the earth”. Would it add a touch of Om? Would the recording survive at all? Cooper vowed to accept, whatever the outcome. Thirty-three minutes of silence could be beautiful. The memory would remain.

He told nobody where the tape was germinating. But, as a fan of author Ian Rankin, he drip-fed his own followers with abstruse Rebus-like clues in ‘The Orkney News’.  After eighteen months the treasure hunt ended when a local couple unearthed it – or fished it out. The resting-place was full of water.

Film-maker Christian Cargill turned to this tale for his second film, “Recomposing Earth”. The excellent documentary is available on YouTube. Shown last week in FBTS’s Wavelength Film Dome, it fitted perfectly the general theme, ‘Plants Can Dance’. With Erland’s warm voice describing the process, we have intimate shots of Orkney, spinning tapes, some scenes recreated such as finding the treasure. From that point the camera follows live action: the tape’s homecoming, its lengthy drying-out, re-digitisation and remastering.

Finally, the revelation. Erland wants to listen alone, so to capture the moment the cameraman dons noise-cancelling headphones and for us too, all sound ceases. We watch… as Erland sits motionless, cocks an ear, buries his face, then dances around enraptured.  

Can we be sure something survived? Perhaps Erland is merely putting on a dumb-show, puzzling us to the end. But for one fleeting hint… 

Spoiler alert: read no further if, like me, you want to hunt around to find what happened. The music did survive, blended with extracts of poems recorded by Mackay Brown himself. The album’s title: ‘Carve the Runes, then be content with silence’. It’s free on sundry platforms and is quite sublime.