Come of age

"I spend a lot of time walking in the Scottish hills and associate certain sounds with my experiences of the landscape. There is one specific sound which I feel is synonymous with the Highlands; the roar of rutting deer. This evokes strong memories of mornings spent sitting on loch side rocks of a small Island called Carna whilst looking over to the hills of the Morvern Peninsula. As the sun rises, the distinctive sound begins, and I scan the horizon with my binoculars to search for silhouettes of stags on the mountain ridges. 

"The recording of the rutting deer was probably the clearest and most powerful I had ever listened to, and I was instantly drawn to it. I imagined the societal structure of the herd, the etiquette of being allowed to participate in these ritualistic ruts and the point at which the young stags reach adulthood and are deemed worthy opponents for the alpha male. 

"I wanted ‘Come of Age’ to tell the story of the rut by introducing the older dominant alpha male and the younger maturing rival, whilst depicting them both travelling to the place of the conflict as they lock horns. The sounds of the rutting deer are included throughout the song to emphasise important elements of the narrative, introduce key characters and mark the point of battle."

Red deer rut in Orleans forest, France reimagined by Simon Holmes.