EDINBURGH 2017: BWW Q&A- Sounding

Tell us a bit about Sounding.

At Sounding, two acclaimed Scottish acts - Modern Studies (our band) and Lomond Campbell - will play, accompanied by the Pumpkinseeds Chamber Orchestra. The show gives everyone involved a chance to stretch their wings a little, and to perform songs live in a fully-realised way that might otherwise only be heard on record. Modern Studies will play songs from our next LP, due in early 2018, and Lomond Campbell will play his Black River Promise LP. We'll have projections, a specially-designed riso-print publication with downloads given out free to the audience, and a bar run by the brilliant Glad Cafe from Glasgow. We're hoping they're going to be three very special shows; something out of the ordinary.

How important is the choice of venue to the piece?

We're hosting Sounding at Stockbridge Parish Church, about 20 minutes walk north of Princes St. It's a beautiful, atmospheric space that should hopefully lend itself to the music and visuals. We want to create somewhere where the audience can lose themselves (in the best way possible) for an hour or two, despite being in the bustle of the city centre.

And the Glad Cafe are involved too?

Yes, Joe (our drummer) is the booker at The Glad Cafe, a community-orientated arts and music venue and cafe in the south side of Glasgow. As well as helping organise the shows, the Glad will run a bar stocked with an excellent range of booze on the nights.

Who would you recommend comes to see Sounding?

Lots of people, really! We hope that the nights will tiptoe a happy line between accessibility and quiet experimentalism! Lomond Campbell is one of Scotland's best songwriters, in my book. His Black River Promise LP may well find the wide audiences he deserves this year; you can hear echoes of Loudon Wainwright, Tim Buckley and John Fahey threading through his songs, which were written from his remote Highland studio.

Modern Studies have been described as 'landscape pop'; we use strings and analogue synths and organs alongside guitars and drums. Songs of Northern Britain, I guess, often pretty abstracted. Plenty of voices, too. We're playing a run of festivals this year, including Glastonbury, and MOJO said our Swell to Great LP was the 19th best of 2016. This will be the first chance to catch our new songs live ahead of their release next year, and a rare opportunity to see them played with the strings and brass (who knew that orchestras were so flippin' expensive to run?!)

Are there any other performances you're hoping to catch at the festival?

I haven't really looked at the listings yet, but Josie Long and Stewart Lee are always there/fantastic, aren't they? (N.b. I should check if they're actually playing, really...) There's often gigs, exhibitions, shows and installations happening in the city through August outwith the Fringe where local artists find space (just!) to put stuff on. It's often worth seeking these things out, for sure.

Timings and ticket information for Sounding are available on the edfringe website.

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