The final act of The Chinese Room’s Dear Esther involves a long climb up to the summit of an aerial tower

Your final act is to survey the hebridean island you have spent your last days exploring

until you fall

and grow wings

and fly
 

free at last

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I think about the final act of indie interactive-novella/video game Dear Esther a lot: climbing up a hill to an aerial tower, slowly making your way up the ladder, listening to your final monologues before jumping and becoming one with the gulls on the hebridean island you have spent the game inhabiting.

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a hebridean gull crashes from an aerial tower was built over the course of 2021-22 as part of Psappha's Composing For... programme, inspired by the structures of traditional hardanger fiddle music, and the idea of crashing and rising, the contours of the piano's strings and harmonics synchronising with Dear Esther's final act.

 

a hebridean gull crashes from an aerial tower is dedicated to the memory of Clare Salaman - an inspirational figure in this piece's development over the course of my time with Psappha.