Andrew Wasylyk & Tommy Perman – Ash Grey and the Gull Glides On

Andrew Wasylyk’s cinematic aura and Tommy Perman’s experimental intuition fuse magically on their debut collaborative album

Album Review by Jamie Wilde | 27 Aug 2024
  • Andrew Wasylyk & Tommy Perman – Ash Grey and the Gull Glides On
Album title: Ash Grey and the Gull Glides On
Artist: Andrew Wasylyk & Tommy Perman
Label: Clay Pipe Music
Release date: 30 Aug

The Tay estuary, situated on Scotland’s east coast, may not quite be as luscious as the Mediterranean. But through the imaginative minds of Dundee-based creatives Andrew Wasylyk and Tommy Perman, anything is possible. Wasylyk’s cinematic aura and Perman’s experimental intuition fuse magically on their debut collaborative album Ash Grey and the Gull Glides On. Its influences are wide-ranging, including Yoko Ono’s Grapefruit, as the pair improvised compositions through random instruction cards such as, “if it’s wet outside: 100bpm. If it’s dry: 70bpm.”

These abstract permutations push each artist’s creative output to new heights, especially on Spec of Dust Becomes a Beam – a beautifully layered track with subtle brass and emotive keys which drifts into a dance-fuelled crescendo. Communal Imagination blends the pair’s individualities further, with Wasylyk’s graceful keys floating harmoniously atop Perman’s juddering rhythms. A further stroke of genius comes from Aidan Moffat, featuring on album closer Be the Hammer with a defiant mantra that channels the album’s idiosyncratic ethos: 'Walk with us or around us, you might find nothing to see here / But come tomorrow, we’ll still be here'. 

Hopeful, forward-thinking and brimming with imagination, the Tay estuary could be paradise with this as its soundtrack.

Listen to: Spec of Dust Becomes a Beam, Be the Hammer

http://thegullglideson.surfacepressure.co.uk