Michael Pedersen & Scott Hutchison team up on Oyster

The Neu! Reekie! co-founder and the Frightened Rabbit frontman collaborate on Pedersen's new poetry collection

Award-winning poet Michael Pedersen has announced details of a new collaboration with Frightened Rabbit songwriter Scott Hutchison. Pedersen's new collection, entitled Oyster, features a host of new poems with reactive illustrations from Hutchison. 

Announcing the project, Pedersen said: "Working with cherished friends on projects of such a formidable cut is a championing concept. When the shining soul in question happens to be a blisteringly, brilliantly braw illustrator and, by chance, one of your favourite songwriters, well then, the job’s a bobbydazzler." 

Hutchison said: "I would have worked with Michael even if he wasn’t one of my dearest friends. His poetry is so thrilling, I get caught up in his worlds and am taken effortlessly into the considered stream of consciousness. It was a challenge to distill the work, to represent such an ebullient and illuminated mind in each artwork. I hope I did it justice."

The duo, who have worked together on a host of projects in the past including numerous iterations of Pedersen's Neu! Reekie! spoken word night, will launch the new book at the 2017 Edinburgh International Book Festival (18 Aug, 8.30pm). Oyster is due for release in September 2017 via Polygon. In other news, Frightened Rabbit released a brand new song on Soundcloud this weekend in response to the UK General Election. Fields of Wheat is a plaintive acoustic cut tagged '#FuckTheTories' – listen to the track in the player below.