FURTHER INFO...

WHAT'S HAPPENING NOW?

Happy New Year everyone - wishing you all the best for 2012 whatever part of the world you are in.

(With winter now here, please read this page if you're thinking of using the studio.)

First - and last? - snow of the year.

December 4th snow arrived then left us just before Christmas...boo. Nothing like last year, just a wee bit, but enough to look good and get Dougie-dog all excited. (Not that it bother's us at all...) Heriot does look bonny in the snow though. I'm sure it'll be back.

Martyn Bennett

An exciting new compilation of Martyn's music 'AYE' will be released March 2012 featuring favourite tunes plus previously unreleased tracks.

He was leftfield, radical and largely unheralded even within the roots/folk world, but this startlingly set confirms Martyn Bennett a solid goal genius. Even his relatively early track Ud The Doudouk – from 1997’s Bothy Culture – which opens this collection, is a deliciously rich, genre-busting cascade of styles with a heavy Middle Eastern flavor. A fine fiddle and bagpipe player who was effectively the first to convincingly blend tradition and techno in a glorious collision between a pure Celtic heritage and a heaving thud of the dance floor, he was on the cusp of greatness in the early 2000’s when Hodgkin’s Lymphoma intervened. He died in 2005 at 33, but this sweeping, grandstanding set – including his remix of Peter Gabriel’s Sky Blue, a sample of travelling singer Lizzie Higgins on Blackbird and an expansive version of a Gaelic psalm on Liberation – is thrillingly alive.
Colin Irwin

Karine Polwart's debut dvd: Here's Where Tomorrow Starts

During the summer we had Karine Polwart and her band here at the studio filming her first dvd.
The DVD features live favourites such as "Daisy", "Sorry" and "Follow the Heron", as well as a peek at some new songs from her next album (due Summer 2012), and some behind the scenes banter about her songs and inspirations.

'A songwriter of rare power' MOJO
'Grippingly understated storytelling' TIMES
'Takes the heart to places few singers even know exist' WORD

To buy a copy click here

Eigg boxes

Eigg resident Lucy Conway has a new idea for artists' studios on that beautiful island and is looking for feedback to help form the idea into reality. Eigg Box will be a workspace on Eigg for island-based artists and creative businesses to share with visiting artists from Scotland and beyond. As well as different sized work spaces, Eigg Box might also have a small exhibition area.

Check out the link Eigg box to see how the idea develops.

Mobile with a home - Mattie Fould's mobile recording studio: www.mwah.biz

Lots of you will probably know that Mattie Foulds (musician extraordinaire, fabby producer, Pathheider and dad of Arlo and Rosa) has his mobile recording studio based here at Heriot Toun. So the album that you've been dying to make but have been putting off can now be expertly recorded at a very reasonable price. No more excuses!

Ring Mattie for more details on: 07817 428 470 or: info@mwah.biz You can also become a fan on Facebook or click on the link for his website.

Local events featuring Pathhead Music Collective musicians

The Pathhead Choir - directed by Gina Rae & Sophie Bancroft
There is a new time of 8pm until 9.30pm - every Wednesday - NEW MEMBERS WELCOME @ ST Mary's Church,
48a Main Street, PATHHEAD, EH37 5QB £30 for 7 weeks / Over 14s
Gospel, Jazz, Folk, Soul and RnB / Develop vocal technique / Sing great songs / Have fun!

Details: info@sophiebancroft.co.uk

BAIRNS MUSIC @ Pathhead Village Hall, 10am. Monday mornings
Song, Rhythm, pulse and puppets for pre - schoolers. £4 per child, £1 for any additional children. Tea, coffee and biscuits included! Contact Jenny Gardner, 07854 928 586

Humbie Box Office film club

Humbie Box Office is a village film society open to all who wish to come along. We have an annual season of around 8 films (September-April) shown in Humbie Village Hall. Although it's fun watching movies with your friends, that's not all HBO offers. Immersing yourself in a vibrant mix of vintage hits, international classics, blockbusters, art movies and all points in between, seeing films made years ago and others fresh out, stories produced in every corner of the world... well, it's a surefireway to find yourself dazzled, provoked, amused, shocked and uplifted. (And sometimes all at once)

Annual membership £22 for nine films. Guests £4 per film
To join, send a cheque for £22, payable to Humbie Box Office, to:
Humbie Box Office, c/o Al Beck,The Old Schoolhouse, Humbie, East Lothian, EH36 5PJ

Alternatively join on the night. All films start around 8pm, doors open 730pm for refreshments.

Tickets are priced at a very reasonable £5.00 for HBO members and £9.00 for guests.

The Hall will be open for refreshments at 7.30 pm and the film will start at 8.00 pm.

For more information:
http://www.humbieboxoffice.co.uk/index.html

Books we like...

The Steel Garden: Poems by Lorna J. Waite (Paperback) (ISBN: 9780956628343)
Available from Word Power Edinburgh, £8.99

"A truly remarkable debut. A plangent, politicised cry from Scotland's de-industrialised core, tribal, feminist and mythopoetic by turns, it confirms the existence of a powerful new voice where the silence of loss once dominated." Robert Alan Jamieson

"In a supple Scots, Lorna Waite creates a way of holding hands with history, a workers' history that needed her to write it down." Valerie Gillies

Hotel Kirkenes - if you happen to be in need of a bed in Finland.

When asked by the city of Kirkenes, Finland to create an artwork for the 2005 Barents Art Triennale, architect Sami Rintala opted for something useful - a simple hotel for hunters, sailors, backpackers, fortune seekers, travellers...The city sits in a region of north east Norway where cultures intersect, including Sami, Russian, Norwegian and Finnish, a fact which the concept of the project embraced. A single stove heats the entire building - one single room, one double room and a small lobby and guests are asked to go to the police station next door to use the bathroom and shower. It was constructed in ten days by the architect, a few architecture students and a couple of builders.