Stories become music with the same succinct, meaningful style
When, in 2014, author James Robertson published 365 Stories, with one story written on each day of the year, each exactly 365 words long, he commented in the introduction that, having published them online and in print, “I hope they have more lives to come.” He probably wasn’t thinking in terms of a musical incarnation, but that is exactly what has happened, as fiddler Aidan O’rourke launches the first volume of his musical responses to these small but perfectly formed tales which he duly composed, one per day, over the course of a year.
365: Volume 1, a double album to be released on 25 May by Reveal Records, features the first 22 tunes with their corresponding stories in an accompanying booklet illustrated by environmental artists Dalziel and Scullion. O’rourke is accompanied by jazz musician Kit Downes on piano and harmonium and later this month the pair tour the UK, including gigs in Edinburgh, Glasgow, Stirling and Banchory at which they’ll be joined by Robertson. Volume II will appear next year, along with an online accessible audio-visual installation O’rourke is creating with artistdesigner Yann Seznec, giving access to all 365 tunes and related stories plus spoken-word versions and scores.
O’rourke, perhaps best known for his work with the folk supertrio Lau, describes his 365 compositions as “not quite like folk music, or classical or jazz. But they are all connected to a story, each dictated by a certain emotion.”
The fiddler was given Robertson’s 365 book for Christmas 2015 and quickly became hooked. “I enjoyed how succinct James’s writing was. It was all there within three or four minutes’ reading – the same kind of length as a tune, and I generally write tunes about something that has an emotional attachment for me, so I could see lots of parallels with James’s writing and his approach to these stories, constraining himself within just 365 words.”
He also sees similarities between his own grounding in traditional music and Robertson’s love of the Scots tongue and traditional tales. “But, like the music I make with Lau, I’m always interested in new ways of playing with old forms.”
When he first suggested to the author that he was interested in writing a tune a day in response to the stories, Robertson’s reply was a terse “Don’t do it!” before going on to suggest that O’rourke should try it for a month a see whether it drove him round the bend.
It didn’t, but it did affect his playing. “I soon noticed that I was moving away from the folky, diatonic realm and wandering into other modes. I was getting out of my comfort zone and, because it was just me, I was trying to accompany myself with implied harmonies and doublestopping.”
Meanwhile, he had met the jazz keyboardist Kit Downes, who became excited by O’rourke’s project. “I would send him rough recordings of the tunes and he would respond by harmonising them, taking them to places I hadn’t imagined.”
In the meantime O’rourke is also busy working with Drake Music Scotland, the inspirational Edinburgh-based charity that enables disabled musicians to realise their potential, using digital technology. The fiddler is collaborating with Drake’s Digital Orchestra to create a piece which he will premiere with them at Edinburgh’s Queen’s Hall on 5 May as part of a concert marking the charity’s 20th anniversary.
“It’s quite amazing what they do at Drake,” he says, describing how, after discussions with the Orchestra members, they agreed on creating a piece inspired by bird flight –partly influenced by Karine Polwart’s acclaimed show Wind Resistance.
He enthusiastically describes the Drake centre at Craigmillar: “Brilliant sounds coming from every corner. I find it humbling, and it’s a great thing for me to be involved in.”
“It was all there within three or four minutes’ reading – the same kind of length as a tune”
O’rourke and Downes play the Barn, Banchory, on 13 April, Pleasance Theatre, Edinburgh, on the 14th, Drygate, Glasgow, on the 15th and Stirling’s Tolbooth on the 18th. See www.aidanorourke.net For Drake Music Scotland see www. drakemusicscotland.org