Moving out of the city centre for the carefully staged Edinburgh International Festival return, a high-quality alternative music line-up goes west this month.
With both indoor venues and events at Princes Street Gardens deemed unsuitable given the still delicate public health scenario, Edinburgh International Festival is staging all its contemporary music at a new Edinburgh Park set-up that’s been specially designed with physical distancing in mind.
Located a short hop from the city bypass, the South Gyle gigs are taking place under a ventilated canopy with seating “bubbles” assigned in advance. With capacities understandably limited many shows have sold out, although at the time of going to press seats were still available for Sunday’s season opener from ex-Scottish Album of the Year winner Kathryn Joseph.
If anyone was doubting the latest Capital extravaganza’s potential to fulfil its artistic remit, choosing the abstract indie folkster to launch the programme certainly makes a statement. There are 21 concerts in all, and closer inspection reveals a diversity that would do hipster-friendly Edinburgh International Festival justice in any year.
Big names
The biggest names include Blur frontman Damon Albarn, ex-Orange Juice legend Edwyn Collins, fast-rising indie kids The Snuts and gospel pop innovator-turned-disco diva Laura Mvula.
Albarn, who also dabbles as leader of such arty projects as Gorillaz and The Good, The Bad And The Queen, will perform work from his new Iceland-inspired project with both his solo band and a string quartet on August 24.
Collins and cohorts, meanwhile, head up a themed performance from Edinburgh arts collective Neu! Reekie! on Tuesday, also featuring sets from spoken worders Darren McGarvey and Victoria McNulty, with West Lothian’s Snuts — their debut album W.L. hit the UK’s number one position on its release in April — in the spotlight on Wednesday.
Further ahead, Mvula is closing the season with a sold-out set featuring tracks from her three Mercury Prize-listed albums — including this year’s dance-tastic Pink Noise — on August 29. The same date should have seen an appearance from US agit-noiseniks Tune-Yards, but that’s been cancelled.
Unsurprisingly, tickets for Monday’s show by Highland folk-rockers Tide Lines also flew out of the door. The four-piece have built serious momentum since forming in 2016 and reached 12 on the UK charts last year with their second album Eye Of The Storm.
Homegrown talent
A similarly stellar homegrown talent who’s moved up a level in both critical and wider recognition terms since the release of a successful sophomore LP is Anna Meredith, who headlines Edinburgh Park on August 20.
The South Queensferry-raised avant composer has an impressive Edinburgh International Festival track record, having put together the sounds for the spectacular Five Telegrams opening lightshow at the Usher Hall in 2018, before dazzling with a completely different live set at Leith Theatre alongside Southbank Sinfonia just days later.
An ex-BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra composer-in-residence, Meredith’s since seen her second studio album Fibs go on on to land a Mercury nomination and she’ll be performing the 2019 work in full on her Capital return.
Another group of artists who’ve carved out a niche as exponents of experimental crossover material is art-rock quartet Black Midi.
The former BRIT School attendees picked up a Mercury nomination for their 2019 debut Schlagenheim and culture vutures can expect a surreal and improvised melting pot of post-punk, jazz and prog rock stylings at the band’s gig on August 19.
Modern jazz
There are also slightly less bemusing approaches to modern jazz on offer this month, courtesy of Moses Boyd (August 17) and Kokoroko (August 26).
The former is one of the key figures in the new London jazz scene, whose acclaimed 2020 debut album Dark Matter also channelled UK grime, Afrobeat and jungle, while the latter are a London-based collective who specialise in laidback jazz-meets-Afrobeat hybrids topped off with three-part harmonies.
Kokoroko’s celebration of West Africa’s stunning musical heritage puts them in a broadly similar bracket to the colourful Edinburgh-based Shona the Musical Choir and the compelling Malian activist / singer / guitarist Fatoumata Diawara, who’ll be bringing their uniquely individual brands of modern Arican music to the stage on August 16 and 27 respectively.
There are also shows this month from folk stars Staves and The Unthanks, Orkney multi-instrumentalist Erland Cooper, youthful post-rockers Black Country, New Road, electro auteurs Caribou and Floating Points, funk bassist Thundercat, post-punk firebrand Nadine Shah, storyteller Richard Dawson and psychrockers The Comet Is Coming.
