Fankless from Westerfjord by Colin Campbell and the Bracadale Collective

Shearing sheep was a highlight of any summer holiday and even little kids could contribute to the big community effort. A fank is the walled enclosure that was used to corral your sheep for shearing, dipping etc. The name of the track comes from a pun that my dad once used. He had been a shepherd as a young man and told me that "catching sheep on an open hill is a fankless task". Definitely a "dad joke". The music is trying to convey the fun of rounding up sheep and bringing them in for shearing. Noises at the beginning and in the middle were recorded from various sources (yacht's mast, cement mixer, empty storage drum) at Bharcasaig Bay where you can still see the remains of the big fank.

I'm a scientist and musician making music at the interface between indie and Scottish traditional music. My album Westerfjord is a love letter to Loch Bracadale and melds diverse influences from indie guitars to the classical music of the bagpipes and blends them with in-situ field recording, archival sound and scientific data.