Andrew Wasylyk – Mariner's Hymn (Video Premiere)
Watch the video for Mariner's Hymn taken from Andrew Wasylyk's upcoming new album, The Paralian
Inspired by a residency to create new music for a restored 19th century Erard Grecian harp by Arbroath arts centre and historic house Hospitalfield, multi-instrumentalist (and Idlewild bassist) Andrew Mitchell, aka Andrew Wasylyk, has created his third full-length album The Paralian, set for release on 1 February via Athens of the North.
"I wrote the majority of The Paralian on an artist's residency at Hospitalfield House which overlooks the North Sea," Mitchell tells us. "During the process I found myself revisiting Beside the Ocean of Time by George Mackay Brown, a wonderful Orcadian poet and writer, the seascapes of Dundonian artist and dancer James Howie and the coastal scenes of Joan Eardley [...] who also worked for a period at Hospitalfield House."
Ahead of The Paralian's release The Skinny are delighted to be premiering the video for Mariner’s Hymn, the latest single to be taken from the album. You can watch the video, directed by Tommy Perman, in the player above (or click here if it’s not displaying correctly). "Musically, I think I was striving for something on the Robert Wyatt side of contemporary-classical,” Mitchell explains. “The strings on this particular track (Mariner’s Hymn) were arranged by the very talented cellist Pete Harvey."
"I wanted the video for Mariner’s Hymn to illuminate the link between the music and the coastal environment where it was written and recorded," director Tommy Perman tells us. "I’ve recently moved to Dundee and I took the opportunity to explore the area with Andrew. Together we gathered footage in locations important to his record, tracking the Tay coastline of Dundee up to the North Sea shores at Arbroath. We collected textures of the shoreline and then projected these images back onto musical instruments in Andrew’s Tayside studio. I filmed Andrew performing the song and edited it together with some of the raw seaside footage."
The Paralian is out on 1 Feb via Athens of the North; Andrew Wasylyk plays Voodoo Rooms, Edinburgh, 30 Jan (Tickets); Gardyne Theatre, Dundee, 31 Jan (Tickets); Celtic Connections at The Blue Arrow, Glasgow, 1 Feb (Tickets)
wasylyk.co.uk