Sycamore with Friends (Ubisano)

4 stars
Off-duty Tattie Toes drummer Shane Connolly and band-mate Jer Reid 
alongside Arab Strap-and-a million-others guitarist Stevie Jones form 
the core of this low-key side-project super-group, but on this 
organic-sounding debut are emboldened by an all-star cast of similarly 
off-piste mavericks,  including pianist Bill Wells, viola player Aby 
Vulliamy and vocalist Nerea Bello. The result on these six instrumental 
workouts veers from angular Mediterranean thrash to post-Tortoise 
twang, with wonky piano and viola scrapes pulsed by busy drum patterns. 
Beautifully textured, it beguiles one minute before going into orbit 
the next, a bit like a post-rock Mahavishnu Orchestra with all the 
indulgences chopped out. Lovely.

The List, August 2012

ends

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Peter Brook – The Prisoner

Peter Brook is no stranger to Scotland, ever since the guru of European and world theatre first brought his nine-hour epic, The Mahabharata, to Glasgow in 1988. That was at the city’s old transport museum, which by 1990 had become Tramway, the still-functioning permanent venue that opened up Glasgow and Scotland as a major channel for international theatre in a way that had previously only been on offer at Edinburgh International Festival.
Brook and his Paris-based Theatre des Bouffes du Nord company’s relationship with Tramway saw him bring his productions of La Tragedie de Carmen, La Tempete, Pellease et Mellisande, The Man Who…, and Oh Les Beaux Jours – the French version of Samuel Beckett’s Happy Days – to Glasgow.
Thirty years on from The Mahabharata, Brook comes to EIF with another piece of pan-global theatre as part of a residency by Theatre des Bouffes du Nord, which Brook has led since he decamped to Paris from London in the early 1970s. The current Edinburgh residency has alr…

Romeo And Juliet - Shakespeare's Globe Comes to Glasgow

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“This is the end of my third year,” says Madden following a Saturday mornin…

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Freedom of movement matters to Suzy Glass, the arts and events producer currently overseeing the second edition of Message from the Skies.This animated literary derive around the city forms part of this year’s Edinburgh’s Hogmanay programme, and runs right through till Burns’ Night. Glass’ concerns are inherent in the event itself, which has commissioned six writers from different disciplines and experiences to each pen a love letter to Europe. Each writer has then paired up with a composer and visual artist or film-maker, with the results of each collaboration projected in monumental fashion on the walls of one of half a dozen of the capital’s most iconic buildings.
With venues stretching from the south side of Edinburgh to Leith, and with one city centre stop requiring a walk up Calton Hill, there is considerable legwork required to complete the circuit. It shouldn’t be considered a race, however, and audiences are free to move between venues at their leisure, visiting each site on d…

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