THE North Sea and the Angus coastline are inspirations for a new album by Scottish writer, producer and multi-instrumentalist Andrew Wasylyk. Titled The Paralian, which means someone who lives by the sea, the evocative, predominantly instrumental record was written during a five-month residency at Hospitalfield, an arts centre and historic house in Arbroath.
“They asked me to compose a suite of music for their restored Erard Grecian harp,” says Wasylyk, whose acclaimed 2017 record Themes For Buildings And Spaces was his response to the architecture and environment of his hometown of Dundee.
Dreamlike, with elements of jazz, ambient and modern classical, the melodies on The Paralian were originally written on piano and performed on the restored 19th-century harp by Glasgow-based Welsh musician Sharron Griffiths, who plays with numerous orchestras including the Royal Scottish National Orchestra and Scottish Opera.
String arrangements were then developed with Pete Harvey of Modern Studies, and Wasylyk says he hopes the cellist will be part of his eight-piece band when he plays live dates early next year, including a gig at Edinburgh’s Voodoo Rooms on January 30 with special guest, former Makar Liz Lochhead. A date at Dundee’s Gardyne Theatre follows the next evening with Kinbrae AKA brothers Andrew and Michael Truscott before Wasylyk and his band play a Celtic Connections concert at Glasgow’s Blue Arrow on February 1. “I was fully intending to do these minimal, quite sort of delicate pieces, but the environment shaped and changed that a lot and they grew with strings, and oboes and brass, drums and bass,” says Wasylyk of The Paralian, which will be released on Athens Of The North – an Edinburgh label which usually specialises in disco and funk but were “really enthusiastic” about his cinematic collection.
Travelling to Arbroath each day from Dundee, Wasylyk was struck by the North Sea horizon. Album track Journey To Inchcape is about a trip to the nearby Bell Rock Lighthouse, the oldest surviving sea-washed lighthouse. Before its completion in 1810, it’s thought the reef of rocks was responsible for wrecking half a dozen ships each winter.
“That was an incredible trip,” he says. “It was low tide and there were basking seals on the rock, whimpering and singing, which I recorded. Living in Dundee, you realise you are quite protected from the North Sea by the mouth of the Tay.
“I never understood the gravity of the North Sea, of that horizon. I had began to take little field study trips along the coast to record birds and waves, and to take photographs. All these external elements bled in to the record. By that time I was totally intoxicated by the North Sea.”
Jan 30, Voodoo Rooms, Edinburgh; Jan 31, Gardyne Theatre, Dundee; Feb 1, The Blue Arrow, Glasgow. www.facebook.com/a.wasylyk
The Paralian is out on Feb 1 via Athens Of The North Records
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