Talented animator Gavin Robinson has created a gorgeous new video for Mike Vass’s song ‘Eyes Fixed’, which features as part of The Dead Stations project. The track features the singing of Mairi Campbell and will be released as a single on 18th March.
Whilst making The Dead Stations, we’ve been lucky to work with two talented young animators, Nica Harrison and Atikah Zailani. They’ve made visuals to go with the live show, and a trailer. Take a look!
Mike Vass was commissioned to write a new suite of music as part of a cross-arts project called ‘Coming Home’ which resulted in a pop-up exhibition at St. Margaret’s House, Edinburgh, this January. The music was written to be played by Edinburgh Youth Gaitherin’s Big Band – a group of about 20 musicians aged 12-18. You can find out more about the project here.
The concerto was in three movements: ‘Leaving Home’, ‘Away Being’ and ‘Coming Home’.
The whole series in one film, including storytelling by Allison Galbraith:
We’ve been producing a number of short films connected to the In the Wake of Neil Gunn project (some by Salmon Films and some put together by Mike). You can find out more about the tour here and pre-order the album here. Here they are in their full glory.
Mike’s original interview with Conxita Fornieles of Salmon Films at the School of Scottish Studies whilst he was researching music to play on the May tour. Transcriptions of the researched tunes are available for download here.
Mike improvises on the fiddle during a calm spot on the way from Arisaig to Tobermory, with a reading from Neil Gunn’s Off in a Boat by film-maker Stu Edwards.
Mike is joined by Innes Watson for a concert in Iona Abbey, where he explains Gunn’s experience in the place.
Whilst in Eigg Mike was privileged to interview the local historian Camille Dressler, whose book Eigg: The Story of and Island is considered to be one of the best resources on Eigg history.
The band rehearsing live in readiness for the tour.
Innes and Mike playing live at Iona Village Hall.
Innes and Mike playing live at Iona Abbey.
A clip from the concert in Arisaig featuring Angus Binnie, Tia Files, Sean Gray and Eilidh Shaw.
A time-lapse film setting up for the show in Lyth
Live performance during the October commission tour at Lyth Arts Centre
A time-lapse film of the Lyth take-down
Heave and Roll music video by Salmon Films
Last summer Mike frightened all of his friends and family by spending several weeks comatose in hospital, struck down by a very rare form of Lyme’s Disease which caused meningitis and encephalitis. Whilst he was recovering in his hospital bed he was given a copy of Neil Gunn’s non-fiction account ‘Off in a Boat’ to read. Mike has a lifelong love of sailing and was so inspired by this book that he decided that once he was well again he would recreate Gunn’s original trip to inspire his own composing. So we spent the month of May sailing this epic voyage. And as project manager, I thought I should at least get to come too (even though I’ve hardly done any sailing in my life and am definitely prone to seasickness).
The route was planned around the locations visited by Gunn as described in his book: Duntulm, Skye; Portnalong, Skye; Eigg; Arisaig; Tobermory; Bunessan; Iona; Oban; Kentallen; Fort William; and finally travelling up the Caledonian Canal to Inverness and eventually reaching Nairn for a homecoming celebration. The aim was for Mike to perform a series of concerts in the various ports, absorb the inspiring beauty of the west coast, and come home to write a new album to be toured in October. We’ve had a huge amount of interest and positive feedback about the project so far and support from Enterprise Music Scotland, Creative Scotland, Calmac Ferries and House of Lochar who originally published the book.
Concert 1: The Red Roof Cafe, Skye
Our first stop was Skye, where NG bought his boat, The Thistle. One of the joys of this trip is that different guest musicians are joining Mike for each concert, so we arrived at Portree with harpist Jennifer Port and her husband Graeme. The guest musicians meant that each local concert was a one-off, flavoured by the place and the people performing with him. Mike spent a few weeks in the School of Scottish Studies Archives in preparation for the performances, looking for music local to each area he was to visit, transcribing them and arranging them to give something unique to each performance. You can read about that here. The Skye visit was characterised by transport logistics – it’s not simple to get about Skye if you don’t have a car, and changing weather conditions meant we had to have contingency plans in place and public transport identified. Fortunately a few very kind people were able to give lifts and be generally brilliant. Us inexperienced sailors were also all severely seasick on the first voyage and I honestly thought I wouldn’t make the month if things were going to be like that. Luckily things got better.
Concerts 2&3: Eigg and Arisaig
Guitarist/flautist Sean Gray and piper Angus Binnie met us in Eigg for concert number two. We were also joined for the first time by a couple of film-makers who are making a documentary about the trip. We’d had some lovely sailing by that point and had probably anticipated some kind of sleepy island watching the ferry come in and out and diligently shutting down for the Sabbath. Suffice to say Eigg folk are pretty wild, and anyone who has the privilege of being a guest on that island is in for an exciting time of it. By this time we were 7 of us (Mike had quite the entourage and the boat itself was skippered by his dad David) and it felt pretty crowded on the short crossing from Eigg to Arisaig. The numbers swelled again as Tia Files and Eilidh Shaw also joined the performance team for a mega line-up for the lucky Astley Hall audience that evening.
Concert 4: Iona
We were selling copies of Off in a Boat and had sold out of books in Arisaig. Fortunately the publishers had diligently sent the last of their stock to the Iona Post Office for us, and got some reprinted in time for the next gig in Duror (the closest hall to Kentallen). It’s amazing how taken people are by the book, actually. It’s selling much better than any of the CDs!
Each concert has been coloured by something different. Eigg and Arisaig will always remain in my memory beautiful sunny places full of mad and welcoming people. Mull and Iona are mysterious lands picked out in drizzle, mist, and gales. Guitarist/fiddler Innes Watson joined us in Tobermory for the trip round to Iona. He didn’t get the smoothest of sailing experiences but he did get to play in the gorgeous acoustics of Iona Abbey. Iona was such a different experience from the likes of Eigg, but the hospitality was excellent and the audiences enthusiastic. Read more about it here.
5th Concert: Kentallen & Duror
Halfway through our stay in Oban, Mike delivered a workshop for Fèis Latharna and their Ceilidh Trail musicians. The Ceilidh Trail is a brilliant initiative which takes place all over Scotland. Young musicians are given a summer job performing as a band around the local area, earning a fee and learning about what it’s like to be a touring musician. These guys are still working up their sets, but we invited them to perform a support slot at the next concert which would give them some performance experience before the big tour. It was a great experience for everyone and they were brilliant.
We decided to stay in Oban that day rather than sail to Kentallen, and got lifts to the concert instead. Mike was joined by Scots singer Fiona Hunter and whistle player/pianist Hamish Napier. The audience at Kentallen and Duror was brilliant. We had arranged the concert ourselves via a hall hire, which is always a risk and we honestly didn’t know if anyone was going to turn up. Luckily we had an enthusiastic hall committee on our side and they worked hard to invite people. We were told ‘nobody’s heard of Mike Vass but they love the concept’. Connie, our main contact, told me that they never get touring acts of that standard coming to play at the hall so it was a great novelty. They seemed to really enjoy themselves and were keen for a return visit. Hopefully we can make that happen!
Caledonian Canal
Hamish joined the crew at Oban and we set out up Loch Linnhe towards the Caledonian Canal. He immediately instated Songs in the Cockpit (coming ready prepared with folders full of lyric sheets – suspiciously organised for a musician) and even wrote a couple of tunes during the voyage. You can hear his tune for the boat, Windsong, towards the end of this video.
The flavour of the voyage changed drastically when we hit Corpach. Suddenly we had moved away from salt water and were into the realms of locks, motoring, and not being able to use the sea toilet (fine for the guys, not so fine for one needing toilet paper). We made it up into the canal, paid our fees (offset by a bit of sponsorship from Scottish Canals – thanks guys!) and moored overnight, waiting for locking up at 8.30 the next morning when we would be taken through Neptune’s Staircase. I celebrated shore power by slow-cooking a bolognese on the electric hob. The boys not so pleased about the long wait for dinner.
It took us 3 1/2 hours to get up the series of locks from Corpach that makes up Neptune’s Staircase. I got to become very familiar with the different types of slime on the lock walls, and Hamish and Mike were particularly adept at standingaroundholdingropes. They made some friends along the way, a French couple heading to Norway with further plans to head across the Atlantic to the Caribbean. They keep a cartoon blog about it here. The canal itself was nothing like my expectations. Stunning mountains (Ben Nevis and friends) at the start, then huge lochs (Lochy and Ness) and tree-lined stretches that felt more like rivers than canal.
6th Concert: Coming home
The boat lives in Nairn where Mike is from, so after an overnight stay in the Seaport Marina in Inverness, we completed our last set of locks and found ourselves back on salt water in the Moray Firth. I’d forgotten what sailing was like after just a few days of peaceful motoring through the canal! We saw our first dolphin too. It played at the bow for a bit before disappearing as we headed under the Kessock Bridge. The wind wasn’t with us that day and we mostly motored, but as we approached Nairn the sun decided to come out and the wind blew in the right direction to allow us to do the last little bit under sail.
It was odd to be back on dry land right enough. We had a few days to recover and then the final homecoming concert at Nairn Sailing Club. This was a real community affair with members of the Nairn Fèis (who Mike recently wrote a 10th anniversary tune for) and the Sailing Club who have known him since he was a boy. He was joined on stage by the last of his guest musicians – none other but the Skipper himself David Vass. It was a great ending to an epic voyage.
Now Mike is back in Glasgow about to start writing the album that will be based on the voyage. Take a look at the blog and follow for updates about the album and tour www.inthewakeofneilgunn.com.
Charlotte, Glasgow.
Mike has been nominated for ‘Best Score’ at this years ScreenTest Student Film Festival
The Film ‘Windfall’ was produced and directed by Frederik Subei of Earthmovies and features tracks from Mike’s solo albums String Theory and DecemberWell
The Awards Ceremony will be held on Sunday the 23rd of March in London
http://youtu.be/fSO8VqtZONA
In preparation for my new cross art-form project ‘In the wake of Neil Gunn’ I’ve been testing my new camera and making some new snippets of music.
The short piece ‘Februaried’ name comes from an alternative Tenor Guitar tuning I invented this month – F Eb Bb D (Februaried, if you will!) The ‘Drum kit’ sound was sampled in my bathroom. Using Cistern and Toilet seat to percussive effect …..
Rural Design Concept is a piece of music I wrote for Distil in 2011, and this is my first ever animation! (Not the most advanced animation but I hope it makes you smile!) The string section on this recording is the very talented Patsy Reid.
My idea of the Rural Design Concept is that a new building in a rural area must approach the site and the landscape with absolute respect so that it is not intrusive but sensitive to it’s environment. Musically I have explored space through the chords, the rhythm, the textures and the harmony, leaving the melody as a later consideration to be anchored thoughtfully into the rich rural environment.
This piece of music was recorded on my latest 5 track ep, “Maggie West’s” and is available to download here http://mairearadgreen.bandcamp.com
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x8os8l9rxl8
Cycles is a series of repeating phrases that builds using first fiddle pizzicato, and then guitar, tenor guitar, glockenspiel and piano. It is inspired by cyclical rhythms in nature, and particularly seasonal changes.
I performed it live for the first time in December 2013 as part of the DecemberWell live tour. I used a Boss loop station to build the piece phrase by phrase. The challenge of performing it was trying to make each phrase very rhythmically tight so that they fitted together well, whilst also clicking foot switches at a fast rate, and remembering to have the glockenspiel nearby!
Cycles is track 9 from my 2012 release ‘DecemberWell’, which you can buy here.
We received an exciting bit of news this week. Earlier this year Mike composed the soundtrack for a short animation by Gavin Robinson. It ended up being accepted into the Edinburgh International Film Festival, and has now been nominated for a Scottish Bafta! You can listen to the full OST here.