Mike Vass’ In the Wake of Neil Gunn available for pre-order

We are very excited that you can now pre-order Mike Vass’ latest solo album through the In the Wake of Neil Gunn website.

It is ‘A journey of recovery and discovery’ – the exciting culmination of an ambitious project which has seen composer and multi-instrumentalist Mike Vass voyage round Scotland’s coastal communities, sailing, composing, and revisiting the 1937 journey of writer Neil Gunn.

The 10-track recording features samples of “found sound” recorded on the trip (from flapping flags to a diesel inboard) and live instruments captured later in the studio. Mike plays tenor guitar, fiddle, mandolin, dulcitone, melodica and percussion. Joining him on the album are some of Scotland’s foremost traditional musicians – Iain Hutchison on piano (who also co-produced the release with Vass); Jennifer Port on oboe and clarsach (Celtic harp); Hamish Napier on flute and whistle and Euan Burton on electric and double bass. Adding to the filmic sound is The Cairn String Quartet ofKatie Rush and Catherine Robertson on violin, Annemarie McGahon on viola and Susan Applebe on cello.

Highly original, it is a suite of music that ebbs and flows, variously subtle and symphonic, seemingly having arrived fully formed with edge, atmosphere, nuances and even boat creaks that makes you feel you are taking the voyage too!

Listen to a preview track here: [soundcloud url=”https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/161796961″ params=”color=ff5500&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false” width=”100%” height=”166″ iframe=”true” /]