The Quietus welcomes you to this warm, sunny and springlike Monday morning with a piece of beguiling psychedelia-tinged folk from Scottish folk trio Lau.
The group, who earlier this year won Best Group at the BBC Folk Awards, release their new album Arc Light on March 30th, and our free track – called ‘The Burrian’ is one of the tracks to feature on the record, and takes Lau’s Celtic-roots music down a winding valley to a more expansive sound. We dropped Kris Drever, Martin Green and Aidan O’Rourke a line to ask a few questions about Arc Light.
Download ‘The Burrian’ here, and read on.
Why did you decide to call the album Arc Light?
Well, there’s no direct relationship between the title and the music. We thought we’d look good in goggles so that developed into a welding theme. We’ll get a use for the snorkel and flippers at some point. We’ve always found it much easier to write music than think up names for it.
The track ‘The Burrian’ is great. What is the significance of the title?
We’ve all spent a lot of time in the Northern Isles one reason or another. The Burrian is a rock in Fair Isle, a Broch of North Ronaldsay, a pub in Orkney and an album by Martin’s in-laws. We get around us.
Talking of wandering, there seems to be quite a psychedelic feel to your new material. Was that something you were trying to achieve?
There are certainly more extended soundscapes on Arc Light. On this album we tried to pay attention to sonic qualities as much as the melodic and harmonic details. Our producer Calum Malcolm was involved from very early on in the writing process and we spent a lot of time experimenting with different sounds and ideas.
