My name’s Katherine Wren and I’m one of the musicians, alongside clarinettist Alex South and vocalist Nerea Bello, working on Keening, Song of the Stranding.

My entry to the project was through Alex South through my own work with Nordic Viola. Founded in 2016, Nordic Viola is a flexible ensemble of woodwind and string players forming musical and cultural connections in the North Atlantic Region with an emphasis on contemporary music and its relationship with traditional forms. Alex and I first came together through a common interest in whales. For Alex, this was primarily researching whale song and for me it was an interest in how Orkney and Shetland are connected culturally to Greenland (and also the other countries I’m interested in, the Faroe Islands and Iceland) through historical whaling voyages and Arctic exploration.

Nerea Bello has also worked previously with Alex. She is a singer who informs her practice from the wisdom of old songs and voices and is inspired by bodies in places, migration, what we carry, what we bring, what we wear and what we sing. It’s been a pleasure for me to get to know Nerea and her work and to find new ways of improvising between the three of us.

Nerea Bello, Aya Kobayashi and Katherine Wren (left to right)

Creating the Music

Alex, Nerea and I have been developing the music since March. One of the things I enjoy about working with Alex is that each project is rooted in research: we spent our first full day learning about the events on 12th July 2023. We also learned about the behaviour of pilot whales, including some of the theories as to why they may have stranded. We then listened to pilot whale recordings, learning about how they call to each other and the clicks they make when echo-locating.

Another thing we wanted to learn about was the Gaelic keening tradition Keening was a vocal, ritual artform, performed at the wake or graveside in mourning of the dead. Nerea comes from the Basque country which has a similar tradition. We learned about the traditional rituals for the dead in the Western Isles and looked at some of the old music associated with them.

New improvisations

It was only in the final hour of that first day that we started improvising. There’s always a slight air of anticipation/nervousness when a new group of musicians come together to improvise. Whilst Alex has worked with both Nerea and I before, it’s not a given that the three of us would gel. However, fortunately we do – extremely well. We discovered with delight that the wide ranges of our voices and instruments overlapped and contrasted well and that we all absolutely love playing with different registers and timbres. A good foundation to build on.

Developing the music further

Alex South, Aya Koyayashi and Nerea Bello - music development

There’s a common misconception that improvising means doing just what you like in the moment. Of course it can be that, it’s fun to do that and it’s usually the way (almost by definition) that an improvised programme starts out. Yet for me, and especially if you’re trying to tell a story/connect to a particular point in time, it’s important to have discipline and structure within the improvisation to convey what everyone needs to say properly and fairly and to ensure the music is coherent. Perhaps contrary to expectation, this provides space for everyone to create and, because the structure is solid, actually does away with the need for a hierarchy. I guess it’s a way of getting to know each other musically whilst creating respect and trust.

We therefore started our second section reflecting on recordings of our very first improvisation session, respectfully discussing aspects we’d like to keep as we worked further.

After that, as a study, we worked with the scale from the Gaelic Keening song and also separated out the different embellishments in whale song, taking turns and then, as we felt more at home with the material, working more freely again as a trio.

Introducing movement

Armed with a body of recordings from session two, which we’d whittled down to the most potent material, by session three we were in a good place to start building what will be our eventual pieces. We were joined in this session by our movement artist, Aya Kobayashi.

Aya brought another dimension to our work. For a start, I loved that she started with a physical warm-up. It brought us together as a group, woke our bodies up and helped us focus. Up until now we’ve focused on the music for its own sake, but Aya drew our focus to the function of the music, to how we will help the participants on the beach mourn the whales and, in fact, how our music will actually help draw the attention of people to where it needs to be at any given point in the proceedings.

All this gave an added poignancy to the music and, with Aya and, by the end of the afternoon, our podcasters Aoife Glass and Phil Hall, in the room, we were starting to get a real sense of performance. Very exciting to feel.

The art and related experiences

Of course, the lead and impetus behind this project isn’t us, it’s artist Sam Gare of North Harris Studio. Whilst we’ve been working on the music, Sam has been making the beautiful wooden casts for the pilot whales and has been on site in Lewis figuring out how art, music and movement will come together on the beach on the day.

As well as researching the events of the stranding herself, Sam has been speaking to local people who experienced the event. There are also about to be school and community workshops in Lewis exploring what happened. Once we all arrive in Lewis, there will be a preparatory session where local people can rehearse the event with us. This isn’t at all compulsory but does offer a chance to people to really be a part of the performance.

The performance

On the day itself, 12th July, we will be on the beach to make the whale casts and there will be an opportunity for everyone to take part as the music is performed. If you can’t make it to Traigh Mhòr, there’ll also be an installation and performance in Tolsta Hall. At the end of the day, we’ll return to the beach as our sand whales wash out on the tide.

More information

If you would like to find out more about the musicians, you can visit

Alex South at https://alexsouth.org/

Katherine Wren at https://nordicviola.com/

Nerea Bello at https://nereabello.wordpress.com/about/

Keening - The Song of the Stranding by Katherine Wren

Tides of Remembrance: The Making of ‘Keening, the Song of the Stranding’