PAS - Parcours Audio Sensibles

Helen Ottaway is a composer, pianist, installation artist and curator. While a student at Goldsmiths’, University of London in the 1980s, she studied briefly with John Cage and up to 1998 worked as a performer, musician and composer with experimental music and theatre groups, touring nationally and internationally. In 1999, with arts administrator Steve Ehrlicher, she formed Artmusic to promote and produce collaborative,site-specific and participatory work. As lead artist she has had extensive experience of working with artists from different disciplines and curating and producing her own and other artists work. As a composer she has received commissions from BBC2, Salisbury Festival, Bath Film Festival, the Bernardi Music Group and others. Landscape, water and nature provide inspiration and and are recurring themes in a style that is predominantly minimalist with influences from folksong and English pastoral and church music traditions.

The website "MPE Fair Isle Reels" is dedicated to the cultural heritage and traditional music of Fair Isle, a small island between the Shetland and Orkney archipelagos in Scotland. It focuses specifically on the preservation and documentation of Fair Isle reels, which are traditional dance tunes integral to the island's social and cultural life. The site offers historical context about the origin and evolution of these reels, highlighting their role in Fair Isle’s community gatherings and celebrations. It includes detailed transcriptions of these musical pieces, alongside discussions of their stylistic characteristics and significance within Fair Isle’s broader musical tradition. Moreover, the site provides resources for researchers and enthusiasts interested in the ethnomusicology of the region. It incorporates audio examples and references to field recordings, which serve as important archival materials to understand the performance practice and variations of the reels over time. The blog format allows for ongoing updates and invites contributions from scholars and musicians, fostering a collaborative environment for the study of Fair Isle’s musical geography and cultural expression.