Start to End: John Martyn's Solid Air @ Summerhall, Edinburgh, 9 Aug

John Martyn’s multi-genre-spanning masterpiece Solid Air was released on Island Records in 1973; celebrated as something of a stoner classic, the album is “firmly ensconced in the hearts of chillers, smokers and music lovers the world over.” Start to End, a band of contemporary Scottish musicians from Admiral Fallow, Pronto Mama and Roddy Hart and the Lonesome Fire, invite the audience at Edinburgh’s Summerhall to join them as they journey into the smoke-filled world of Solid Air.

Caitlin Buchanan opens the show with Joni Mitchell-indebted vocals and tender fingerpicked guitar, drawing the audience ever closer with each note. The young musician cites Martyn as one of the key inspirations for her traditional folk sound and classical style of guitar playing. Although she struggles to hold some of the notes, which she puts down to a heavy night of drinking, this is not to the detriment of her overall sound which is raw, powerful and a living testament to the impact John Martyn’s body of work has had on generations of contemporary Scottish musicians and music lovers alike.

Although Solid Air is renowned for being appreciated in solitude and from the comfort of home, the audience responds to this by laying down on the floor of the venue, some practically horizontal, in a manner that Martyn himself would have approved. Vocalist Sam West describes how everyone remembers their first encounter with Solid Air and how this has shaped his own experience as a musician, members of the audience close their eyes in agreeance as though transported back to the very time and place where they first heard the record.

Tonight's audience spans across generations, with perhaps some having had the chance to witness John Martyn perform live before his death in 2009. For those not so fortunate, Start to End’s intact performance is a close second, where even sounds picked up from outside the venue fit in with the evocative soundscape that conjures up a late-night jazz club or the sounds of a city by night.