Instagram story viewer> @mike.thecroft> Tagged

Mike D

@mike.thecroft

1.1K

followers

3114

following

Ex-Subclub guy / ex-crofter / ex-weaver / Harris Distillery creative & storyteller. Copywriter and amateur painter.📍Glasgow

POSTS STORIES REELS TAGGED

One of the releases we were most excited to get our hands on this year! The Hearach has finally landed here for us in Canada and it’s everything we hoped it would be! It’s a bottle that combines the passion of people with a stunning and unique part of Scotland. We’re just a few drams in so far but we’re already dreaming of booking a trip across to Harris ourselves! Great work team, you’ve done something special with this one! @isleofharrisdistillers 👏

514

30

On Burns Night, I'll be celebrating with this beauty from Harris Distillery that had its long awaited US launch in October (and the gin... 🍸🙌)

Slàinte Mhaith 🥃🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿

@isleofharrisdistillers
#thehearach
#burnsnight
#robertburns

24

5

2023 with Isle of Harris Gin & The Hearach! 🍸🥃

Wishing everyone a very Happy New Year / Bliadhna Mhath Ùr when it comes!

Slàinte to 2024!

81

3

That was the year that was… one of old friends and new, sad losses, global stravaiging, weird stills, Macbeth madness, Harribean beaches, a blend, a graduate, books, more books, music, tea … and the odd dram. Love amid worry. Love will win.
🙏🏻
(and thanks to @rachelsermanni for keeping me vaguely sane & calm)
🙏🏻

354

14

The absolute best thing I’ve ever unboxed. Available at Sage 10/27. Thanks to everyone at Harris Distillery and Misa Imports for making this happen. Slàinte Mhath!

63

15

Hulllooo,

I’ve been working a lot with the lovely folks at @isleofharrisdistillers lately and about a year ago I was commissioned to create a soundscape to coincide with the release of ‘The Hearach’, the first legal whiskey to come from the island. So over this past year I’ve been travelling back and forth, field recording, chatting with local folks, soaking up some of the most beautiful landscapes on planet earth and cramming it all into a big messy soundscape for you to enjoy alongside your dram. And let me tell you something, it’s been wonderful.

My previous work has had a strong emphasis on population decline in the islands, something that Harris particularly has grappled with. Very heartwarming therefore to see everything the distillery is doing to reverse that by providing employment for local people and generous helpings of community spirit, ha 🥃. Just really great to see Harris starting to move back into a place where people can make roots and maintain our freaky, cosy way of life. So it’s an important dram, maybe the most important of drams?. I’d like to think so.

In keeping with true Harris business ethics, everything you can hear in the soundscape is made from recordings I collected there over the course of this year. I normally look to Scottish archives for stories in my soundscapes but I stepped deeper into field recording here, as I think there's still good sounds and good stories to be heard in the Hebrides and it's important they be collected. My work is usually a pretty solitary endeavour so that’s been ridiculously nerve racking but I intend to see it through.

Finally, a big thank you needs said to all the wonderful folks throughout the island who invited me into their homes, shared yarns, played music for me, sang for me or just generally let creep around them with my microphones as they went about their business. Also another massive thank you to the Isle of Harris Distillery for letting me be a part of it. Been beautiful.

Anyway, I hope you have a listen and manage to pick up a bottle of this special uisge beatha soon. Mines half full you’ll notice so that should tell you something.

Link to the work up top!

Slainte mhath.

76

10

Huge congratulations to the @isleofharrisdistillers team on the launch of The Hearach. A lovely dram from a distillery which plays such a vital role in the life & future of its community.

I got a wee sample & remembered a great visit earlier in the year with @rosalind_erskine
Finally we can talk about it!

A few thoughts:

Aroma: Light. A gentle touch of hot sand, light florals, a thread of smoke. Balanced and subtle. The smoke grows in time, but remains as a veil over yellow fruits.

Flavour: More energy here. Still the sweet, mellow fruits, and a rounded, mildly oily feel. In the middle there’s fresh malt, dry grass and more verve - girdle (griddle) scone. Misty smoke, sugared almond, poached pear.
Enough weight to show it will mature well. Some mineral edges then sand and smoke on the finish.
Dry glass: Smell of sweet warm grass on a summer’s day

#harris #hebrideanwhisky #singlemalt

373

7

Took some recordings to the beautiful 15th century church St Clements in Rodel on the Isle of Harris the other day. Then we took a big speaker, blasted them out and re-recorded them with some fancy mics to steal some of this places’ dreamy, haunting reverb.

I’ve wanted to get this done for a while and it turned out really well so super chuffed. This is all for a exciting new soundscape I’ve been working on for a good 6 months now. Feeling very happy with it so far so looking forward to getting it out in the world fairly soon.

This first video features the lovely, super talented hearach girls from ALT singing a Gaelic tune about the wonders of Scalpay.

#reamping #sound #soundart #soundscapes #fieldrecording #instaart #artistsoninstagram #neumann #zoom #isleofharris #outerhebrides #scotland #scottishartist #ableton #church #history

48

5

Harribean?
A spectacular few days with @isleofharrisdistillers catching up with their plans (exciting but can’t tell you any more yet); a wee boat trip, sheep in the desert; a magnificent foghorn (for @jenniferlucyallan) and even time to pop into the small but perfectly wonderful @isle_of_harris_brewery and a revitalising chat about roses & brooms and time-specific spells with @asapoth
Thanks to all.
#hebrideanwhisky #harribean #westernisles #whisky #stravaiging

493

24

The hypnotic pulse of the middle cut
@isleofharrisdistillers
#isleofharris #harris #hebrideanwhisky #newmake

218

10

… this arrived yesterday.It’s taken over 10 years to get this idea down on paper. Thanks to the amazing @christinakernohan_photo for her images & all at @octopus_books_ & all the incredible folks I learned from in its writing.
It’s about Scotland, whisky, culture, landscape, community, sustainability, engagement, bioregionalism.
Farming, distilling, blending, forestry, woodworking, glassmaking, boatbuilding, perfumery.
Literature, poetry, music.
Lost histories & a possible future.
North to south. Neolithic to the future.
It’s out Sep 29.
🙏🏻
#senseofplace #whisky #scotland #stravaiging

1k

161

Some of you will remember @mfdoom - a few of us remember KMD 😔🙏🏼 - this was groundbreaking Hip Hop - gutted

90

25