Hello friends,

Happy New Year! It’s January, it’s properly dark by mid-afternoon, and I’m living in that odd zone between making the work and asking people to help it exist. That’s a place filled with anticipation — but this week it’s also been genuinely joyful, because you’ve already carried Honeymoon Bridge over the line. Thank you so much to everyone who has so generously contributed. I’m looking forward now, to rolling my sleeves up in earnest!

In brief (for the skimmers):

• OUTWITH at Celtic Connections, Sun 18 Jan, 8pm, The Glad Cafe (Glasgow) — film with live smallpipes soundtrack.

• Honeymoon Bridge is funded — thank you — and there’s one last day to deepen it before the crowdfunder closes (after Wednesday 14 Jan, i.e. into the small hours). If you’d like to be a part of this, don’t miss out!

This Sunday: OUTWITH at Celtic Connections (Glasgow)

OUTWITH is a film-with-live-soundtrack night: two short films will be shown - 2021’s How’ve You Been?, and the as-yet unscreened 2022 sequel Outwith. Both were shot during my time on Ascension Island between 2019-2022. HYB is a self-filmed reflection on isolation in the South Atlantic and our first return (with trepidation, in June 2021) to the post-covid world outside. Outwith, is a deeper exploration of my experience of place on Ascension, in the form of a series of piping “rituals”, and was filmed during April 2022 by Laurence Durkin and Kevin Brennan of Silver Strand Productions. Larry & Kevin spent a memorable month with us in April ‘22, our last month on the island.

Both films are re-voiced live in the room in a collaboration between my smallpipes, Richard Youngs’ eBowed electric, and Williwaw (Bill Whitmer)’s amped uke — a kind of live re-inhabiting of place, memory, and atmosphere, alongside two friends who in different ways were key to the form this work took out there.

If you’ve been curious about that Ascension period of work — or if you just fancy a night that takes you somewhere you’ve maybe never been (and may never go) — I’d love to see you there this Sunday 18th January 2026.

Tickets:
https://www.celticconnections.com/event/1/donald-wg-lindsay-howve-you-been-and-outwith/

Honeymoon Bridge: already a success — final-day push

Because of you, Honeymoon Bridge is happening as planned, with a residential session between myself and Roo Geddes, hosted once again by the lovely Nick Turner and Mary Ann Kennedy at Watercolour Music in Ardgour - and will then be released through our good friends Martin and Calum Hadden at Birnam CD.

And because the crowdfunder is still live for one more day, we’ve got a rare chance to do a wee bit more towards the “not bigger — deeper” version: a bit more time for detail, choices, and polish - and maybe even (if we hit our stretch goal) a guest or two?

If you’ve been meaning to back it (or upgrade), today/tomorrow is the moment — and if you’ve already backed, the biggest help is still a quick share to one person who you reckon would genuinely enjoy the music.

Crowdfunder link:
https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/honeymoon-bridge

Warmly,
Donald

P.S. The Lindsay System chanter rewards are part of the campaign too — so if there’s a smallpiper in your world who’s been curious about a two-octaves-plus chanter (including the new keys), feel free to pass the link on. You may be doing your piping friend a genuine, and lasting, favour!