Ross Ainslie and Ali Hutton’s Symbiosis trilogy of albums have been marked by these Perthshire pipers’ quest for adventure.
It’s a quest that has seen the pair, who play a homecoming concert at Perth Theatre on Saturday October 1, recognised at the BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards.
The quest was forged in a house in Pitlochry where their host and mentor, the late piping legend Gordon Duncan, had been known to stir the log fire with a tin whistle because it was nearer to hand than the poker.
A music mentor
Gordon wasn’t just Ross and Ali’s piping instructor. He encouraged them to become multi-instrumentalists who have enriched their tunesmithery by adding guitar, cittern, banjo and bouzouki to their pipes and whistles.
“When Gordon became our tutor in the Vale of Atholl Pipe Band, he was really more of a music teacher than a piping instructor,” says Ali.
“He’d take us through the pieces we had to learn for competitions and then he’d just play us stuff. He had all these instruments on his wall and he could show you how guitar chords worked, for example.”
Through bands including the Treacherous Orchestra, Ross and Ali have applied Gordon’s knowledge.
“Gordon died in 2005,” says Ali, “but he’s still with us in our music.”
