SIOBHAN Wilson’s new EP makes perfect listening for the darkest days of the year. Cinematic and nocturnal, its seven tracks twinkle with fragile beauty and Wilson’s heavenly ululations.
Entitled Plastic Grave, Wilson’s “artistic response to anthropogenic climate change” comes six months after the Glasgow-based Francophile followed her Scottish Album of the Year-nominated There Are No Saints with The Departure, a record in which she smeared her sparse, spellbinding folk chanson with grungey guitars.
Since then, she’s toured with Suzanne Vega; had her song Terrible Woman beamed to US and UK audiences via “the new Fleabag” Back To Life; played her first show in New York; and recorded in Chicago with hardcore icon Steve Albini.
Albini, whose Shellac visit Glasgow’s SWG3 on Tuesday, is one of a number of collaborators to feature on the self-released EP, for which Wilson is also joined by Penicuik engineer Mattie Foulds, musicians from the Scottish Chamber and English Symphony Orchestras and a colony of bats. The creatures’ calls feature in the captivating Echo Location, part of a predominantly instrumental suite of nature-inspired compositions.
Elsewhere there’s the elegant Theatre In Winter, an almost festive imagining “of a winter scene on a theatre stage in Pitlochry”, searing live track Behind The Curtain and the elegiac Your Moon Has Come, recorded with Albini.
An expert in precision microphoning, the engineer captured the sound of Wilson lifting her foot off the pedal of the grand piano in his Electrical Audio studio complex.
Albini was in tune with Wilson’s dislike of overworking songs and unnecessary adornment.
“I like to leave things really bare or as bare as possible cause I love the way that sounds – sparse and space for the words to come through,” she says.
Such techniques allow her emotionally-driven compositions to take life, Wilson explains.
“I like a creative flow that captures some kind of spark,”
she says. “I don’t think I sound emotionally-driven in a recording if the vibe in the studio isn’t right, and that’s why I love the recording of Your Moon Has Come.
“The recording sounds like an emotional story, which is what the song is. It captures how I felt when I sang it and makes it real.”
Wilson adds: “For me, that’s the best way to translate a song idea through the recording process and on to the listener who is in the armchair with the glass of wine.
I want somebody to hear it and feel a similar feeling to when I was singing it. For me, that is the magic of human connection and a really special way of communicating.”
Wilson will play from Plastic Grave at a one-off Christmas concert at Summerhall on Saturday, December 14 – the first time she will play her cello at one of her own gigs.
Earlier this year, the Edinburgh venue was home to a one-month residency by climate crisis group Extinction Rebellion Scotland.
It will receive £1 from every sale of the limited-edition physical EP, which Wilson put together from recycled, biodegradable materials.
Support comes from Babe front man and Charlotte Gainsbourg collaborator Gerard Black, with Wilson then being joined by a supergroup featuring Alasdair Roberts, Rachel Sermanni and Honeyblood’s Stina Tweeddale.
“It’s a massive privilege to have these people along on my show,” Wilson says. “It’s a really special creative spark that flies when musicians come together for one-off performance.”
December 14, Summerhall, Edinburgh, 7pm, £14. Tel: 0131 560 1580. www.summerhall.co.uk www.siobhan-wilson.com www.facebook.com/siobhanwilsonmusic
Plastic Grave is out now on Suffering Fools Records
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