list.co.uk/festival Sounding | FESTIVAL MUSIC
SOUNDING OFF
A collaboration between Modern Studies and Lomond Campbell, bolstered by the Pumpkinseeds Chamber Orchestra’s strings, brass and voices, makes for one of the most intriguing musical
events at this year’s Fringe. Sam Bradley talks to the acts involved to fi nd out more
S tockbridge Church, a 200-year-old Georgian building off the beaten festival track, is not a typical Fringe venue. ‘It’s a beautiful, airy space,’ says Emily Scott, lead vocalist of acclaimed landscape pop band Modern Studies. As part of the Made in Scotland 2017 programme, Scott’s bandmates and fellow artist Lomond Campbell will be using the church to stage what promises to be one of the most unique performances of the year.
A chance to catch two of Scotland’s i nest new contemporary indie acts, Sounding will see sets from Modern Studies and Campbell, arranged specially with the full ten-piece string lineup of the Pumpkinseeds Chamber Orchestra, adding brass and choral voices to their take on music, as well as a pop-up bar run by Glasgow’s Glad Café, spectral visual projections and bespoke artwork for the audience all laid on. While Campbell will be playing his 2016 album Black River Promise in its entirety, Modern Studies, who released critically acclaimed debut Swell to Great in 2016, will be playing fresh material from their new record, due out next year. For Campbell, the event is a long-hoped-for
opportunity to perform his album as it was recorded, with a full string and vocal section at his side.
Campbell says: ‘We recorded it in a 500-year-old castle in the central Highlands with a full Pumpkinseeds lineup and I never imagined it would be possible to do a live version, yet here we are. The Pumpkinseeds ensemble is made up of some of the best musicians in Scotland (and beyond) so I’ll have to raise my game . . . or maybe just not show up.’
Each acclaimed musicians in their own right, the members of Modern Studies – Pete Harvey, Joe Smillie, Rob St John and Emily Scott – have known Campbell for years, with Black River Promise scored by Harvey and featuring Scott on bass. ‘Aye, we’re all pals and I’d proffer that there’s a fair bit of mutual artistic respect going on,’ says Campbell. According to Scott, the live collaboration with the Pumpkinseeds will also give them a chance to test out their new material. ‘It’s a rare chance to imagine these new songs with strings, brass and backing singers from the outset,’ she says. ‘I’ve been honing my composing skills since Stray Light [her 2014 solo record], so the opportunity to write for this larger ensemble has been a steep learning curve, but really exciting.’>>
17–28 Aug 2017 THE LIST FESTIVAL 71