The Wild Atlantic Way is an interconnected motoring or cycling route meandering all the way along the rugged Atlantic coast of Ireland. And it's stunning. It's a real sensory feast of geology, colour, weather and sounds. So what better way to bring it to life than the perfect combination of sight and sound: film and music.
This multimedia project commissioned by Tourism Ireland follows two musicians (known as Solomon Grey) as they head from Donegal to Cork (via the Aran Islands) collecting sounds for an album. There's not much in the way of narrative jeopardy on their route (the old van runs smoothly and even the obligatory sheep in the road don't look that stubborn), but it's mercifully light on craic and fiddles, beautifully shot and there is a little narrative intrigue raised by the obvious question of how Solomon Grey will combine such a weird collection of sound effects into something listenable. That question is answered when you listen to the finished tracks on the website - all annotated with details of where the sounds were sourced and how they've been used. The whole effect is highly evocative of the landscape and the people, and it certainly made me want to load up a campervan and head over the Irish Sea. What more can tourism content do than that?
http://www.ireland.com/en-gb/wild-atlantic-way/sounds