Day: 20 June 2015

TRACK: Eyes Fixed by Mike Vass feat. Mairi Campbell

Category : Blog Tracks

We’re working on an experimental new project combining scripted drama with music and animation for a record that’s not quite music album, not quite radio drama, and when seen live, isn’t quite animated film either. It’s a wonderful mixture of all the media. The project features original score by Mike Vass and writing by Charlotte Hathaway, as well as animation and sound design from Edinburgh College of Art. We’re very excited about it, and the sound is making an excursion from Mike’s more recognisable Scottish traditional melodies. The album ‘The Dead Stations‘ is due to be released at the end of February with a short tour of Scotland and launch at Edinburgh’s Queens Hall in March.

This sample track features vocals and viola from Mairi Campbell:

https://soundcloud.com/mikevass/eyes-fixed-feat-mairi-campbell

Supported by Creative Scotland and Arts Trust Scotland


In the Wake of Neil Gunn @ Edinburgh Fringe

www.acousticmusiccentre.co.uk
www.madeinscotlandshowcase.com

The 10-track recording, recently nominated for the Scottish Album of the Year Award, featured samples of “found sound” recorded on the trip (from flapping flags to Tobermory clock chime) and live instruments captured later in the studio. Highly original and genre-hopping across folk, classical and electronic styles, it is a suite of music that ebbs and flows, variously subtle and symphonic.

At the Fringe shows Mike will be joined by some of Scotland’s foremost traditional musicians who also featured on the album. While Mike plays tenor guitar and masterminds the sampling, Jennifer Port plays oboe and clarsach (Celtic harp), Hamish Napier is on piano and flute, Euan Burton plays double bass and Innes Watson plays guitar. Adding to the filmic sound is The Cairn String Quartet of Katie Rush and Catherine Robertson on violin, Annemarie McGahon on viola and Susan Applebe on cello.

The performance will integrate traditional, classical and electronic elements alongside film, photography and spoken extracts from Gunn’s work – vividly evoking the moods of the sea, weather and landscape in one memorable musical-maritime experience.