Made from recordings of the bandoneón, the iconic instrumental sound Argentinean Tango.

This is the first of three pieces, inspired by oceanic mythology from Persia, India and Europe. Caspian Retreat explores the beauty and complexities of contemporary life in a land steeped in ancient art, culture and music; a land rich in colour, smell and sound. Using recordings collected from the Caspian Sea and the city of Tehran, Iran, Caspian Retreat journeys into the mysticism of ancient and modern Persia. It was written at a time when Iran was announced by George Bush to be one of three countries on the axis of evil.

a’ fas soilleir is Claire M Singer‘s mesmerising audiovisual masterpiece. Originally premiered at the Sound Festival in 2006, this extraordinary work was filmed on the breathtaking Isle of Skye, capturing the ethereal beauty of the ever-shifting weather as it dances across the majestic landscape of the ‘Old Man of Storr’. To enhance the experience, Singer’s composition is flawlessly intertwined with an enchanting organ and electronics score, recorded on the Aubertin Organ at the renowned Kings College in Aberdeen. Prepare to be transported to a world of awe-inspiring sights and captivating sounds like never before.

Dreel is the name of a river in Anstruther, Fife; the river gives its name to a bar, The Dreel Tavern, which was called The Railway Tavern until the railway closed thirty years ago. The title is also a contraction of the words ‘Dunmall’s Reel’. ‘Reel’ is a genre of Scottish dance music which might more usually be associated with the Scottish border bagpipes which are heard in various guises throughout the piece, played by Paul Dunmall.

‘I am imagining a writer, who has just returned from a city of which name is very slippery for him to remember. In the middle of a night, he wakes up from a strange dream. Trying to write about the city he has been to and dreamed about, a name suddenly occurs to him: Hasla! But, at the same time, he is no longer sure whether he actually made the travel or his dream has finally caught him for good!’

Pete Stollery is intrigued by the potential power he has as a composer working with technology and fixed media to conserve sounds which will soon no longer exist. Workers at the Glendronach Distillery in North-East Scotland were told in 2004 that the plant was to move from a coal-fired manufacturing process to a more ecological method of heating. They began to realise that the sounds they had become used to as part of their daily work — kiln doors opening and closing, raking out the kilns, coal pouring from the back of delivery lorries — were soon to disappear from their working environment.

Originally, Stollery had intended to make a few recordings of these “disappearing sounds” and use them in the sound documentary / installation part of the project. However, it became clear during his visits to the distillery that there were many more interesting sounds which were crying out to be used and so he decided to make an entire piece using sounds recorded from both inside and outside of the distillery, including the rolling of whisky barrels along the ground, grain milling machines and the Glendronach Burn which runs through the distillery grounds.