Tags: KT Tunstall

Qeqertassuak. Gurr-kurr-tiss-wack

Bleak, sleet, cold; howling packs of half wolf hounds that have had their barks bred out of them. Black sand, with blue white icebergs as big as multi-storey car-parks, road bridges, office blocks. Their little relatives pecking at sand, littering the beach. Each of these unliftable baby ‘bergs look like something. A chicken. A swan. A turtle.

The dogs are everywhere, chained, wet, wild. I see a mother with two unchained puppies strangling herself to try and reach a huge hole another dog has dug himself, all the other dogs wailing and straining towards it. The dog in the centre has caught one of her puppies. I walk away feeling ill and deeply domesticated.
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KT and Luke

KT Tunstall and Luke Bullen - an arctic honeymoon
KT and Luke on the shore in Qeqertassuak. Photo: Nathan Gallagher.

The sea has hills

Iceberg and sea on the coast off West Greenland
As we head North for Disko Bay. Photo: Nathan Gallagher

Murky half light. It felt like a kid was playing with our boat using his whole arm, up and down, up and down, over the hills of the sea. I imagined we were in the downy neck of a huge eagle (to avoid associations with sea-related hurling, which worked thankfully); UP – the wings flap down, DOWN – the wings flap up. Valleys and lakes.
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Composing

KT Tunstall composing
KT Tunstall composing. Photo: Nathan Gallagher

KT calling

Communicating to the rest of the world via KT Tunstall.

Plane landing at Kangerlussuaq

We could see the east coast of Greenland, indifferent, majestic, and there they were – icebergs from above!! Aaaarrr!! We were suddenly all toddlers, looking down on the little minty sailboats being shoved out of the nest of the shore, forced to take off on voyages from which they would never return. Ever diminishing, ever more alone. Gliding off into the vastness.

5 hours sailing down the gargantuan straight of Sondre Stromfjord, the light starts to get soaked up by the time. Like a waking dream. Milky green sea that looks alive. A beautifully perfected valley scraped out of the landscape as our guide, singing us out of its mouth. The weirdness. The spook. That half-light that makes you feel like the whites of your eyes are glowing. A low-lying cloud that turns a scottish landscape into a science fiction set. The boat is full and buzzing like a hive. The Belgian-Danish bar and restaurant manager Jan (Yan? Xian?!) has the best and weirdest burr on his r’s I’ve ever heard. Want to teach him the Ragged Rascal Ran tongue twister.

Outward bound

Jarvis Cocker and KT Tunstall checking in at Heathrow

Jarvis Cocker and KT Tunstall swap travel stories at the check-in at Heathrow.
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Science Weekly podcast: KT Tunstall’s trip to the Arctic

The latest Guardian Science Weekly podcast features GM crops, space dust, a green car powered by petrol and KT Tunstall’s trip to the Arctic. “Singer songwriter KT Tunstall tells us about her trip to the Arctic with Cape Farewell and why climate change is a new religion. She’s furious with claims the expedition is just a publicity stunt…”
Read the full article and listen to the podcast ›

Launch at the Science Museum

KT Tunstall, David Buckland and Simon Boxall talk at the Science Museum
KT Tunstall, David Buckland and Simon Boxall talk at the Science Museum

KT Tunstall, David Buckland and Simon Boxall photographed during the QA, as part of the launch event at the Science Museum, Tuesday 16 September.