Turbine Hall

Our sneaky weekend out west had a purpose, and this was to attend a remarkable performance of Maria Fusco's Master Rock in the turbine hall of the Cruachan Power Station. You probably won't have heard of it, and there won't be any more performances as the half dozen or so that were done this week were unique experiences for a lucky group, but you can hear it on the radio, and see/listen to a couple of documentaries. There is also a book.

For those lucky few of us who were able to attend the performance, it was amazing. We were taken on mini buses a mile into the rock. And whereas the normal "Cruachan experience" guided tours just take you to a viewing platform we were able to mill around on the turbine hall floor waiting for the performance to start, and wondering at the sound scape that had been created there, combining the noises from the turbines, and the crackle of electricity. The performance consists of four "voices". The narration by Fusco, the voice of one of the tunnellers, the voice of the woman who created the amazing woodcut mural who never actually visited the turbine hall to see it in situ, and then the "voice" of the mountain itself . Here's the only review I've been able to find. I haven't listened to the radio programme yet. It will be interesting to see if I feel it does it justice.

Earlier on, we wandered around a sunny Argyll, including a trip to Campbelltown and back. It was disappointing. Well, not disappointing, because we knew what to expect. The west side of the Mull of Kintyre peninsula didn't really live up to expectations, though, although the east wide was better. We also drove up the west side of Loch Awe on our way to Cruachan (see extra).

The hotel continued to delight. And later on, with about 100 other people, we were guests of Artangel in The George for dinner and what appeared to be unlimited quantities of wine.