It's an extraordinary story. Trevor Morrison was the last person alive who knew the traditional music of the tiny Scottish Island of St Kilda, the inhabitants of which were forced to evacuate the island in 1930, leaving it uninhabited. Morrison recorded the music at a care home in 2006, music that otherwise would have been lost forever. He had been taught the pieces by his piano teacher, who was originally from St Kilda. His teacher would place Trevor's hands over his own as he played in order to teach him the music.

Now those haunting recordings by Morrison, who died in 2012, have been released alongside orchestral arrangements of the music by composers including James MacMillan (who also conducts on the album), Craig Armstrong, Rebecca Dale, Francis Macdonald and Christopher Duncan. In the video below, James MacMillan travels – with a piano! – to St Kilda to play this precious music:

'The Lost Songs of St Kilda' is out now on Decca Classics.