Musician’s bid to track down jute mill families from 1950s video.

A Dundee musician is hoping Courier readers can help identify the jute mill workers and their families featured in the promotional video for his pioneering new album. Michael Alexander spoke to him.

Like many Dundonians, musician Andrew Mitchell doesn’t have to look far back in his family tree to find links with the city’s former jute industry. The 35-year-old vocalist and bass player with successful bands The Hazey Janes and Idlewild became fascinated with the history of the mills, where his great great grandparents, descended from Irish stock, once worked.

Now the gifted writer and producer has taken the connection a step further, coupling his love of architecture with a new instrumental album that invites the listener to explore his home city through a series of sumptuous melodies.

The recording, Themes for Buildings and Spaces, due for release on April 28, has been inspired by eight architectural sites and open spaces, from the prevailing percussion of Lower Dens Works to the minimalism of The Howff.

The aim of the compositions, he says, was to echo the materials, the uses and the romanticised memories of a postwar cityscape that has been shifting and evolving throughout the decades – and to “encourage the nostalgist in all of us to consider a different view of the city of Jute, Jam and Journalism”.

Andrew, who has recorded the album under the solo alias Andrew Wasylyk – in memory of his Ukrainianborn grandfather Ivan Wasylyk – has employed a broad range of styles, from cinematic brass and strings to minimal piano, to conjure up the sounds of his city.

The album sleeve features a photograph of the old Hawkhill being demolished in the 1970s, taken by internationally-renowned ‘father of Scottish modern photography’, the late Joseph Mackenzie.

A video for the lead track, Drift, has been produced, based on Dundee Heritage Trust archive footage of Halley’s jute mill workers embarking on an annual workers’ picnic to Fife in the mid-1950s and Andrew is hoping Courier readers will get in touch if they recognise any family members.

He added: “Although I have manipulated the footage in the video, I would love to know if people recognise anyone.

“It shows an annual workers’ picnic to Fife after a gruelling year of work in the mills. They played simple games like skipping, sack races and egg and spoon.”

“It’s a shamelessly romantic look at things. There’s a lot to be said for that, and hopefully each piece encapsulates it.”

If you recognise anyone in the film or pictures contact Andrew by email on info@wasylyk.co.uk

Andrew Mitchell has manipulated the images of workers from Halley’s jute mill on an annual picnic in Fife in the mid-1950s.