CHART-TOPPING singer David Gray features on an album in aid of projects to protect one of the north's most endangered birds, the curlew.
The double-album, compiled by Orkney-born musician Merlyn Driver, also includes songs from electronica pioneer Talvin Singh and English folk group The Unthanks.
Gray's 1998 album White Ladder sold seven million copies worldwide and remains one of the best-selling albums in the Republic.
The second disc of the album includes soundscapes recorded by Mr Driver on Lough Erne lowlands and around Glenwherry on the Antrim Plateau last year.
Curlews, who are waders, were added to the list of most endangered birds in 2015 after their numbers almost halved over the previous two decades.
In Northern Ireland the species is at risk of becoming extinct in the next ten years.
There are only around 250 breeding pairs of curlews in the north.
The RSPB NI is attempting to stabilise the curlew population through its Curlews in Crisis project.
Mr Driver said he hoped the album could help curlew conservation.
"Curlew vocalisations are bewitchingly unique - they often sound major and minor at the same time," he said.
"Curlews gave me so much joy and so many different pathways into imagination and wildness when I was growing up.
"The idea that we could lose breeding curlews in the UK inspired me to act and assemble new creative responses to this amazing bird so it's great to be able to pay reverence to them and contribute in a small way to their conservation."
Samantha Lee, RSPB Senior Species Recovery Officer, said the birds need our help.
"Curlews are a species that people really emotionally connect with, a bird associated with the changing of seasons and wild, sweeping, landscapes," she said.
"They have such distinctive calls, but curlews are in real trouble and each year these sounds are getting quieter.
"It is really exciting for the RSPB to be working on a project like this, with Merlyn and others in the creative industry to help us engage with people about one of the UK’s most endangered birds in such a different way."
To order the CD visit www.curlewsoundsproject.org
