As Musicians in Residence for Dandelion Scotland’s Unexpected Gardens, we have been working with Findhorn Bay Arts to explore sowing, growing, and sharing in Forres, Moray.
The Unexpected Gardens program has invited local people to share ideas, make connections and inspire new ways of thinking about growing, whilst cultivating local roots and fresh connections among residents, growers, artists, and community groups.
From the new Floating Garden at the Mosset Burn to mushroom buckets and Sprouting Seeds in Pop up Pots down the Living Lanes, we’ve been learning more about what grows in the town and about the people who grow things!
During our residency in Forres, we interviewed and spent time with various growing groups and created a soundwalk/album that brings all these wonderful folks together!
The tracks form a soundwalk which can be experienced in full here: explore.echoes.xyz/collections/NdWOcs8YWFVtx74T
Or download the soundwalk map and information directly with the album from our bandcamp – https://dopeymonkey.bandcamp.com/…/cultivating-connections
We’ve turned recorded sounds, music and conversations into the songs that you will hear on this soundwalk, each representing different elements of the Unexpected Gardens.
Take a moment to listen to the songs at each point and hear more about the varied, vast and creative growing that is going on right on your doorstep. It may even encourage you to sow some seeds yourself…
Credits
Music by Dopey Monkey (Danielle Price and Martin Lee Thomson)
Mix and Master by Sonny Johns (excluding tracks 2 and 6)
Album Artwork by Dopey Monkey
With thanks to Moray Rotary Club, Tobar An Dualchais and the Elphinstone Institute.
The Unexpected Gardens Project is by Dandelion Scotland, commissioned by Events Scotland as part of unboxed2022 creativity in the UK.
Photographs: Martin Lee Thomson & Danielle Price
