Tracer Trails is delighted to announce a new project, curated and produced by Emily Roff, and due to commence in mid-January 2011.
This project aims to open up the extraordinary Archives of the School of Scottish Studies at the University of Edinburgh, by commissioning three artists – Alasdair Roberts, Drew Wright (Wounded Knee) and Aileen Campbell – to create brand new works based on investigations conducted there during a 12-week residency from January to April 2011. We’ll be touring these works around Scotland next autumn; until then you can follow the progress of the project online at www.archivetrails.com.
The Archives
Founded in 1951 to gather, document, and preserve the oral traditions of Scotland, The School of Scottish Studies played a central role in the Folk Revival of the 1950s and 60s. Fieldworkers including Hamish Henderson and Alan Lomax conducted landmark research at the School, and their field recordings are now held – on open reels, cassettes, discs and even wax cylinders – as part of the School’s massive Archive of traditional songs, tales, oral history, ethnographic photography and video.
The Archive is a unique and invaluable resource, and to mark its 60th anniversary in 2011 we’ll be delving deep into the tape stacks with three very different artists who share an interest in song and the voice. Bringing to the project three quite distinct perspectives, together their works will offer a holistic interpretation of this incredible collection…
The Artists
Alasdair Roberts is possibly the only musician to have starred on the covers of both Wire 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. Best known for his re-reinvention of the Scots ballad tradition, he’ll be taking the opportunity of this residency to pursue new avenues: he intends to spend his time in the Archive researching and reworking the mummers’ play Galoshins to create a new, extended drama and song cycle.
Drew Wright – aka Wounded Knee – takes an interest in popular song, chants and ditties. Inspired as much by minimal techno as by folk forms he creates a strange and timeless Janus music that looks both to the ballads, shanties and worksong of old and the mechanised minimalism of the new: future primitive music. Whereas Alasdair’s work focuses on texts – manipulating, recontextualising – Drew’s primary interest is in sound: texture, rhythm, melody, noise. He’ll be looking at canntaireachd and mouth music and the ‘sounds in the silences’ of the tapes (clocks ticking, cats mewing, sneezes!).
Aileen Campbell is a visual artist as well as an experienced chorister and member of the Glasgow Improvisers Orchestra. Her practice centers on an investigation into the embodied properties of the human voice, through performative works and their documentation in video. She’s interested in the mass “chorus” of voices represented within the Sound Archive, as well as the history of the collection and its physical presence in the building where it has been housed since 1951. As a photographer and film-maker, of course, she’ll also be spending a lot of time in the School’s vast Photographic Archive.
Follow the Project
From the time the residency begins in mid-January, you’ll be able to follow the progress of the project online at www.archivetrails.com. We’ll be tracking the artists’ research with a blog offering insight into their process; plus, you’ll be able to listen to tape excerpts and view images from the Archives. For now, keep an eye on www.tracertrails.co.uk for updates.
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This project has been devised by Emily Roff / Tracer Trails in collaboration with the School of Scottish Studies at the University of Edinburgh, and is supported by Creative Scotland, the University of Edinburgh Knowledge Exchange Grant and the University of Edinburgh Campaign.
