Thursday 11 February 2016, 8pm
Glasgow-based songwriter Alasdair Roberts returns to OTO following his stand-out set as part of Trembling Bells residency last June and an acclaimed self-titled album (his eighth) on Drag City. Alasdair Roberts is possibly the only musician to have starred on the covers of bothWire and fRoots magazines, reflecting the uniquely innovative nature of his work which couples interpretations of traditional material with new compositions drawing on the folkloric stock of Scotland, Britain and the wider world.
“It is a rare talent – one who is now bordering on auteur territory - who can relate folk music with such scholarly authenticity, and penetrate on such an emotional level at the same time.” – The Quietus
“Roberts retains an abiding love for dense lyricism, internal rhyme schemes, and melodies that wind their way along like wild vines gradually unspooling over stony ruins.” – Pitchfork
Alasdair Roberts is a Glasgow-based musician – primarily a singer and guitarist – born in Germany and raised in central Scotland. Acclaimed by Folk Radio UK as 'one of our most talented, important and relevant songwriters and song-adapters', he has released several critically acclaimed albums of his music via Drag City Records since the late nineties.
Alasdair is known for his own idiosyncratic and evocative compositions and songs, as well as for his fresh interpretations of traditional songs and narrative ballads from Scotland and beyond. He enjoys a wide range of collaborations with fellow musicians, as well as with artists from other disciplines. He plays in the groups Furrow Collective and Current 93 and has toured extensively both in the UK and worldwide, both solo and with various musical companions.
Alasdair’s most recent album, Grief in the Kitchen and Mirth in the Hall, is a collection of traditional songs recorded entirely solo. April 2025 will see the release of Remembered in Exile: Songs and Ballads from Nova Scotia, a new album recorded in collaboration with Lewis-born Gaelic singer Màiri Morrison and Canadian producer/arranger Pete Johnston.
Alison Blunt violin - Ivor Kallin viola - Hannah Marshall cello
The first performance bringing the trio together was in 2007 at Freedom of the City Festival in London. It was so enjoyable that the musicians decided to form a band and called themselves Barrel, as it involved a lot of scraping. Barrel has since gained a formidable reputation through their mainland and international performances. Gratuitous Abuse was in the Wire Magazine's annual critic’s choice list of improv’ releases and both this audio documentation and Barrel - Live At Artacts ’12 have received many excellent reviews.
“Decades of instrumental practice along and against the tradition blended inside an inter-mutual jargon that takes something from the classic and the absurd in equal doses. Heterogeneous composites causing inflammatory euphoria.” – Massimo Ricci, Touching Extremes
“To the uninitiated, this trio of string virtuosos might sound like musical terrorists…revolutionary, funny and breathtakingly audacious.” – All About Jazz
Further info: http://www.emanemdisc.com/E5020.html
Concerto Caledonia's 13 albums have uncovered many hidden aspects of Scottish music, from Italianate baroque cantatas and 18th-century fiddlers re-writing Purcell, to the mercenary viol player Tobias Hume and the amiable drunk aristocrat composer the 6th Earl of Kellie. Alasdair Roberts featured on their Britten-inspired Revenge of the Folksingers: Gramophone magazine wrote of its Purcell-based follow-up that 'To say that Concerto Caledonia's album veers between maddening and utterly joyous is to put them well ahead of the curve.' Their current project is a Scottish dance band based on models from the Golden Age of Scottish fiddling in 1780s Edinburgh. Come prepared to dance ...
