The Distance WBM 003

The Visit

The Visit features the late Kitty Gregorson MBE, aged 98 at the time of a recording made by her grand niece Bumble during a visit to her Edinburgh home one sunny afternoon. Despite her almost complete loss of sight, Kitty had a clear memory of all the family portraits around the sitting room and gave Bumble the stories and background relating to her remarkable family. On listening to the tape we were inspired to write The Visit, sampling a few excerpts of this fascinating conversation and mixing it with some sounds of our own. Kitty was a great cellist in her day, having attended the Royal College of Music in London in the 1920s, where she would have been a contemporary of composers including Vaughan Williams and Michael Tippett. She taught hundreds of aspiring cellists from her flat in Edinburgh, including Moray Welsh, who paid a personal tribute to Kitty at a thanksgiving service held at St. Cuthbert's Parish Church in Edinburgh, following her passing in 2004.

The live brass parts on the track are played by John and Sarah Grant. John was educated at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and the Royal College of Music in London.. John also played guest principal flute with the London Symphony Orchestra, the Scottish Chamber Orchestra and the BBC National Orchestra of Wales.

The ambience at the beginning and end of the track is from one of our own field recordings, made simply by hanging a mic out the kitchen window one Summers evening on the Isle of Mull 15 years ago. To this day we don't know who the piper was, but for motor enthusiasts the car is a modified Mk 1 Ford Capri.

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