Hope's Beautiful Daughters
This Slovenian-Scottish collaboration - the first of its kind - was initiated by Katarina Juvančič & Dejan Lapanja. The pair teamed up
with the prominent Scottish musicians and songwriters Karine Polwart, Paul Tasker (Doghouse Roses), Fiona Cuthill (Raintown, Rallion),
Seylan Baxter (Tattie Jam) as well as some of the country's finest storytellers (Lawrence
Tulloch from Shetland, Tom Muir from Orkney and David Campbell from Edinburgh) to realise the album's ambitious content. Regular Slovenian collaborators Matija Krečič (fiddle),
Klemen Krajc (double bass), Gašper Peršl (drums), and the Salamandra Salamandra band also feature, cementing a true cultural exchange. Together they have developed the project, inspired by St. Augustine's contemplation on hope, anger and courage.
Talented ladies Tinka Volarič
(illustrator) and Jerneja Rodica
(designer) took care of the visual imagery of the album. It depicts anger and
courage as dynamic entities, spinning eternally around our worlds. Shaping us
as human beings and societies, as well as our ability to hold and mould them or change their trajectories if necessary with our strength. And love.
It all started with these words…
Hope has two beautiful
daughters. Their names are anger and courage; anger at the way things are, and
courage to see that they do not remain the way they are.
Augustine of Hippo
Hope's Beautiful Daughters - stories behind the songs
Hope’s Beautiful Daughters is a celebration of the female gender in all its beauty, mystery, wisdom, strength and vulnerability, and the friendships that nurture them in this world.
1. IRENA
Irena tells a story of a little boy saved by Irena Sendler, a Polish nurse who smuggled more than 2,500 Jewish children from the German-occupied Warsaw ghetto during World War II.
2. SKELETON WOMAN
This song was inspired by Skeleton Woman, a tale of the Inuit people I found in a book by Clarissa Pinkola Estés called “Women Who Run with the Wolves”.
3. DREAMMAKER
A folk tale from the Hebrides that tells of a courageous journey to wisdom (The Dreammaker), told by David Campbell.
4. FRIDA
I wrote this song in the most strenuous days of my life – to soothe myself and all the women from the hospital ward, trembling between life and death. And also for Frida Kahlo.
5. URSILLA
An Orkney folk tale (Ursilla and her Selkie Lover) depicting a rather unusual and bold way to find love, told by Tom Muir.
6. SISTER SUN
This song depicts an Inuit legend Sister Sun Brother Moon that was collected by the German-American anthropologist Franz Boas and published in his monograph “The Central Eskimo” (1888).
7. SVARILO JANEZU
This Slovenian-Scottish version of a Scottish song called Mickey’s Warning/Blue Bleezin’ Blind Drunk was arranged by Karine Polwart and Katarina Juvančič. Abuse of women knows no linguistic barriers and neither does the courage to leave.
8. MALLIE
Shetland folk tale (Mallie and the Trow) about kindness of heart in the midst of great poverty, told by Lawrence Tulloch.
9. ROSA
Rosa is based on the book “The Letters of Rosa Luxemburg” and it pays a tribute to her feisty, passionate, sparkly, proud, untamable and profoundly sensitive spirit.
THANKS
Katarina & Dejan would like to thank the Ministry of Culture and Municipality of Cerknica for their financial contributions, Sean Lewis for recording Tom, Bob McGeady for recording Lawrence, Mike Wilson for proofreading the booklet and to all hope’s beautiful daughters and sons out there, fighting for a better world for us all.
Most heartfelt gratitude goes to all our talented friends from Scotland and Slovenia who poured their hearts and souls into the songs and stories. Especially to Karine Polwart who helped Katarina put the final touches to the lyrics and who introduced us to St. Augustine’s Hope’s beautiful daughters in the first place. xx
We hope the album finds its way to the people who appreciate its message(s) and meaning(s) and feel all the love that made this project possible. ... But then again, the right stuff always finds the right people. ;-)
. . . . . .
HOPE’S BEAUTIFUL DAUGHTERS LINE-UP:
Katarina Juvančič – lyrics, music, vocals, producer
Dejan Lapanja – music arrangements, guitars, keyboards, mix & mastering, producer
Karine Polwart – vocals, guitar
Seylan Baxter - cello
Fiona Cuthill - fiddle
Paul Tasker - guitar
Gašper Peršl - drums
Matija Krečič - fiddle
Klemen Krajc - double bass
David Campbell, Tom Muir and Lawrence Tulloch – storytellers
Salamandra Salamandra band - music arrangements for the stories (Samo Kutin – ngoni, kalimba, calabash, hurdy-gurdy, percussions, vocals; Matej Magajne – acoustic & electric guitar, bass; Sabina Magajne Bogolin – French horn, vocals; Dejan Lapanja – drums)
Tinka Volarič – illustrations & handwriting
Jerneja Rodica – design
Sound samples in Rosa – protests in Ljubljana 2012/13 (copyright by Andrej Zdravič), Great tit (copyright by Slovene Museum of Natural History, dr Tomi Trilar)
