Description
Label Review.
2019 album. Folk.
Our Overview.
Multi-award winning Scottish contemporary fiddle player and composer Aida O’Rourke is releasing ‘365: Volume 2’ a 25 track deluxe CD and story booklet, following on from last years top selling )and sold out) ‘365: Volume 1’ with another beautifully sparse and emotive collection recorded with Mercury Prize nominee Kit Downes (ECM).
Bold, tender, full of old truths and distilled modern wit, “365:Volume 2” is built on the beauty of the miniature. It’s a collaboration between artists steeped in tradition but constantly breaking new ground. In 2013, James Robertson - one of Scotland’s leading authors - wrote a short story every day for a year. It became an enchanting, roaming collection of fairytales and memories and provocations; that was only the beginning. A couple of years later, Aidan O’Rourke wrote a tune every day in response to the stories. The result is a major new body of 365 tunes - a significant addition to the Scottish traditional music canon. “365: Volume Two” presents highlights from the heart of the project.
Aidan’s playing and writing are renowned for deep lyricism and off-kilter twists, here paired with kaleidoscopic harmonies of Kit Downes on harmonium and piano. Aidan O’Rourke and Kit Downes have recently played select shows with The Unthanks, before performing their own headline concerts in May 2019 and dates for New Music Biennial (featuring James Robertson) in collaboration with director Shilpa T-Hyland at London’s Southbank Centre and in Hull.
The new album will coincide with the launch of a sound installation 365: Stories and Music, commissioned by the Edinburgh International Book Festival supported by Creative Scotland and PRSF. The installation launches in August 2019 before going on tour. The EIBF describes the project as “a piece about storytelling: about how to tell stories without saying too much.”
“It’s as if Debussy and Ravel were orchestrating Scottish Folk - truly beautiful” Songlines