365: Stories + Music Comes To Celtic Connections 2020

The UK's premier celebration of folk, roots and world music, Celtic Connections, hosts a very special, one-off performance of 365: Stories and Music - an epic cross-artform collaboration by leading Scottish artists Aidan O'Rourke and James Robertson on February 2nd 2020. The beautiful new art installation - designed by Yann Seznec and built by Old School Fabrications - to house the collection of 365 stories and tunes for the public to enjoy will be located at the Glasgow Royal Concert Hall foyer for the duration of the festival.

It all started in 2013, when James Robertson - one of Scotland's most prominent authors - set himself the challenge of writing a short story every day for a year. Each story was to be 365 words, no more, no less. It became an enchanting, roaming collection of fairytales and memories and provocations published in 2014 by Penguin as 365:Stories. That was only the beginning.

In 2016, enchanted by the potent atmosphere of Robertson's tiny prose pieces and intrigued by the notion of an inescapable daily creative ritual, Aidan O'Rourke - fiddler, composer, curator and one third of Lau - decided to write a tune every day in response. The result is a major new body of 365 tunes - a significant addition to the Scottish traditional music canon.

Lighting up the stage of The Mackintosh Church on 2nd February for a very special concert, O'Rourke will play some of his sparse and emotive fiddle tunes, paired with kaleidoscopic harmonies from Mercury-nominated Kit Downes on harmonium and piano and guitarist Sorren Maclean. Joining them on stage for this bold and tender epic, James Robertson will read a selection of his stories along with special guests including Tam Dean Burn, Gerda Stevenson and Iona Zajac.

Robertson's stories and O'Rourke's music now form a touring installation designed by inventor Yann Seznec in collaboration with design team Old School Fabrications which will be at the Glasgow Royal Concert Hall foyer for the duration of Celtic Connections. The installation is a piece of art in itself, beautifully crafted from wood and brass with no digital screens in sight encasing the spoken-word recordings of all 365 stories: Robertson reads many himself, and other storytellers provide rich and varied accents from artists, actors and young people around Scotland including; Gerda Stevenson, Cathy MacDonald, Matthew Zajac and Kate Molleson.

The free-to-enjoy installation allows up to six people at a time to browse through all 365 stories and listen through headphones. Commissioned by the Edinburgh International Book Festival and supported by Creative Scotland and PRSF, it launched in August 2019 before touring to Linlithgow Palace, Scottish International Storytelling Festival, Shetland Word Play Festival, Orkney Library and Huntingtower throughout the Autumn and Winter months.

From January 2020, readers can receive a daily story and tune to be delivered to their email inbox. With no need to buy a CD or book, the 365 Stories and Music will arrive every day free of charge - a daily miniature piece of public art. A son might sign his mum up to receive a tune and short story every day via email. A tourist might fall in love with Scottish fiddle playing. Couples will nod in recognition to one of James's wise tales; children will get the creeps from his ghost stories; budding composers might feel inspired to create their own 365-day challenge.

This project has grown in ways James Robertson couldn't have imagined when he began writing his stories. It has become a vast, rich and multiform patchwork of fiction woven with stunning melody - an expansive catalogue of public art whose multimedia format means it can be enjoyed in numerous ways.

Tickets for 365 featuring Aidan O'Rourke & James Robertson at Celtic Connections are available now via www.celticconnections.com.

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