The last actions of the Fruit Routes harvest celebrations take place around a bonfire. Food is cooked in and on the fire. Potatoes in their skins wrapped in foil. Sweetcorn, sausages and chestnuts.

Stories are told around and across the circle of people, old to young and of many places, faces lit by the fire, the hub of this gathering.

I step forward as near to the fire as I can get and address the gathering. I give each segment of the circle the name of a tree to chant. I then conduct them in a tree chant, bringing in each section one after the other. Indicating volume changes with hand movements.

This chant later becomes the basis for the Little Onion (with The Fruit Routes Ensemble) track ‘Entry Points’ available on Spotify, AppleMusic, Amazon Music etc.

Also YouTube:

Paul Conneally

March 2019