PHAMIE GOW is principally known as a brilliant Scottish harpist who bridges the divide between Celtic and classical music.
Having made her name by winning an award at the age of 19 at Celtic Connections more than a decade ago she has gone on to collaborate with a host of folk and classical musicians including fiddler Alisdair Fraser, Galician piper Carlos Nunez, Gambian griot and kora player Bajaly Suso and most notably composer Philip Glass with whom she appeared at New Yorks Carnegie Hall. She has toured the world playing sell-out concerts from China to South America.
Currently she is touring Europe promoting her sixth album entitled Road of the Loving Heart, the name of which was given to the pathway leading to the house of Robert Louis Stevenson built by the local Samoan people for the support the Scottish author had given them during the time he settled there at the end of the 19th century.
For this album she has traded the harp for the grand piano, playing solo works that are simple, romantic, minimalist and pregnant with poignancy.
The album was recorded in Montpellier in the south of France where Gow first became acquainted with the Pons piano when she was holding masterclasses there three years ago, The stand out track, Carousel, with its hint of French folk music, was inspired by the carousel in the citys Place de Comedie, its waltz time conjuring up a sense of movement and of the hustle and bustle of the town.
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Au Revoir Elsa is dedicated to a friend who died of cancer and the album as a whole has melancholic feel. Exile, with its dramatic sustained opening chords was inspired by the Highland clearances of the 18th and 19th centuries, a nod to the importance and influence of her home roots. The album also a filmic quality to it; one can almost visualise the tracks of Road of the Loving Heart playing over the end credits of a Hollywood movie, and its no surprise that this is an area that Phamie Gow is eager to exploit.
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