hi, i'm ailsa mair...
singer,
cellist,
songwriter,
improviser,
land-listener,
budding storyteller,
yarn spinner,
weaver of song-cloth,
everyday ritual artist,
environmentalist,
trainee ecomusicologist,
&
(quite possibly) part-mermaid...
I place myself at the edges of land and sea, earth and cosmos to be a vessel for creativity... Having trained and identified mainly as a cellist for years, I am now offering myself as a musician and artist with a conscious awareness of the powerful healing potential of sound, story, nature and ritual space. I work as much as possible outdoors, having done a lot of site-specific performance all over Britain, including with aerial circus company Whispering Woods, with dancer & choreographer Denise Rowe and band Ombiviolum on Dartmoor, and solo and in collaboration with my duo Tinc y Tannau in Wales.
You can find loads more about me in two recent interviews
I did earlier in 2020:
one with writer Leslie Tate here:
https://leslietate.com/2020/05/9599/
...and one with Folklife presenter Caitlin Tan for West Virginia Public Broadcasting, about a project I've collaborated on with storyteller Peter Stevenson, called The Moon Eyed People:
PAST COLLABORATIONS/projects include:
(see my pages for current offerings)
Whispering Wood Folk - magical family aerial circus/storytelling shows set in the woods:
http://whispering-wood-folk.co.uk/
Ombiviolum - Zimbabwean/Celtic fusion band, Devon: http://www.ombiviolum.com/
Dancer & choreographer Denise Rowe - 'She Who Walks'; 'Enter the Circle'
https://www.earthdances.co.uk/
Peter Stevenson (illustrator, storyteller, writer) - MANY shows with this amazing being!
http://cabinetofcuriosities.moonfruit.com/
Georgia Ruth (Welsh Music Prize winner) - cello parts on 2020 album 'Mai': https://georgiaruth.co.uk/
Tingle - cosmic reggae in West Wales: https://www.tingleme.uk/about
Mackerel Sky - magical duetting with the extraordinary Pixy Tom
https://www.facebook.com/pixytomsmusic/
Ayla Schafer - visionary songwriter (inc. EP 'Words and Wolves' )
https://aylasong.bandcamp.com/album/words-and-wolves
Joanna Bond - performance art piece: 'Inseparability of Human and Nature'
Sacred Activists' Sanctuary - Co-holding of this beautiful zone at The Green Gathering Festival
http://www.greengathering.org.uk/
'Pan, Miss Mae, & their Pole of Disarray - with Kitty O'Blitherin a.k.a Cath Rigler as part of Machynlleth Comedy Fest 2019 (funded by Articulture)
https://kittyoblitherin.weebly.com/