Gathered in Amber

The BBC’s Late Junction programme has commissioned a series of genre-crossing collaborations by musicians who’ve never met before. In their most recent one, broadcast last Thursday, Alasdair was hooked up with Irvine Arditti (violinist founder of the Arditti Quartet, whose performances of Xenakis and Beethoven’s Grosse Fugue get occasional airings in this house) and Elaine Mitchener. Mitchener describes the session as ‘free improv’ and it’s not quite like anything Alasdair has done before, though his presence is identifiable through much of it. The closest comparison might be if Concerto Caledonia performed Appendix Out’s Travels in Constants EP - and a couple of pieces by Berio. Don’t put up with that unsatisfying description but listen here until Thursday. The image above is taken from this gallery, showing the performance of Bellissimo where the musicians swapped instruments (Alasdair borrowing Irvine’s violin).

Here’s the track listing:

1. False, False
2. Bellissimo
3. Comin’ through the Fair
4. Rudest
5. Chatterboxes [extra track, broadcast 2013-06-12, about 1hr 17 min in]

While the on-demand streams are scheduled to disappear in the next couple of days, the full session should be available in due course as a downloadable podcast (iTunes link). Apologies for being slow to share this: I had a routine operation last week that put me out of action for a few days.

Not yet on the official site, Alasdair appears to be playing a one-day festival in Reading: tickets here.

I’m reminded of this because a couple of poor-quality videos have been republished on YouTube, featuring two songs by Alasdair:

• The Needle and the Damage Done
• One More Sign [rare Buffalo Springfield song, unreleased until Neil Young Archives Vol 1]

I don’t know which order these songs were played or whether Alasdair played any others in his set (judging by the length of the bill, I wouldn’t be surprised if he was only given time for two songs).

A rare warm evening in London, and Alasdair was supported by You Are Wolf, comprising Kerry Andrew (familiar from the Handel House performance) and her husband. Kerry once more contributed backing vocals to one of Alasdair’s songs.

1. The Cruel War
2. The Golden Vanity
3. Fusion of Horizons
4. Song Composed in December
5. The Fair Flower of Northumberland
6. Come, My Darling Polly
7. Hurricane Brown
8. The Merry Wake
9. The Year of the Burning
10. The Whole House is Singing
11. Comin’ Through the Dye (see note)
12. Between Birthmark and Deathbed (?)
13. The Blantyre Explosion (encore, with backing vocals by Kerry Andrew and Roshi Nasehi)

Thanks once more to Chrissie for this report from Wednesday’s show in Edinburgh. There are also several photos from the show.

No matter how many times I see Alasdair live, he is never anything less that wonderful. His set at the Edinburgh Folk Club — to an enthusiastic, but small audience — was no exception. The surprise of the evening was Come, My Darling Polly from Farewell Sorrow - ever one of my favourites. It was lovely that everyone spontaneously joined in on The Cruel Mother - it was also spine-tingling.

1. The Golden Vanity
2. The Cruel War
3. Fusion of Horizons
4. Song Composed in December
5. Fair Flower of Northumberland
6. Heather Down the Moor (?) (instrumental)
7. Between Birthmark and Deathbed (?)
8. Come, My Darling Polly
9. Hurricane Brown
10. The Year of the Burning
11. The Merry Wake
12. The Cruel Mother (acapella)
13. Riddle Me This
14. The Blantyre Explosion
15. The Whole House is Singing (encore)

Just at the start of the set Alasdair did a very quick acapella comedy bit called Comin Through the Dye from an album his dad had done with the late Alex Campbell, sung of course to the tune of Comin Through the Rye:

Jeannie McPherson was a person
Wi’ bonnie yellow hair,
I took her a trip doon the watter
Ae Glasgie Fair.

The rain it poured doon a’ the day
An’ Jeannie couldny keep dry;
An a’ I saw wiss streaks o’ gray
Comin’ through the dye.

• A review of the band show a couple of weeks ago in Cambridge.
• A round-up of dates on the North American tour.
• Recent BBC radio plays on Radio 2 and Radio Nan Gaidheal.

The ever dependable Robin Denselow finds space in a short review of Mariza’s Barbican show to mention Alasdair’s support slot.

[He] opened with a gently compelling solo set matching jaunty finger-picking guitar work with bleak lyrics on The Merry Wake and other songs from his latest album.

Alasdair contributes an essay to the June issue of The Wire. His essay provides a comparative history and anthropology of the practice of flyting, taking in his recent Burns Night trip to Iceland, both mythological and geological explanations for that island’s volcanic activity, Hamish Henderson of course, and the advantages of waging war with words rather than other technologies.

The List reviews Alasdair’s band show in Glasgow from a couple of weeks ago: “Less a conventional folk gig than a subversive ceilidh organised by some cracked millenarian cult”. Tchhh.

Released on 10 June, the sixth Leigh Folk Festival compilation Sportsmen, Seafarers, Scumbags & Psychos features an exclusive track from Alasdair. No mention yet of what it is: perhaps another jig, or “What Cares the Crow?”? Please. Available for pre-order.