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Birl of Unmap

by Kinbrae & Clare Archibald

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  • Limited Edition Compact Disc
    Compact Disc (CD) + Digital Album

    Limited edition compact disc presented in an eco-friendly 6 page digifile layout with artwork by Niall McCormack, design by Gretchen Korsmo & photography from Clare Archibald.

    Includes unlimited streaming of Birl of Unmap via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.

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Undersouls 04:07
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Carbide Fizz 02:24
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Peer 05:28
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about

Full Spectrum and The Dark Outside are pleased to present ‘Birl of Unmap,’ the first collaborative album from Kinbrae – the project of twin brothers Mike and Andy Truscott – and writer / artist Clare Archibald. Hailing from the Kingdom of Fife in Scotland, the trio has forged a new practice in creative dialogue and sonic experimentation, exploring abstract notions of ‘place’ and deconstructing its innate rhythms and sonic totems.

For the unfamiliar, a bit of vocabulary context may be required – “birl” is a Scots word that means to spin or whirl.

To wit, ‘Birl of Unmap’ is an attempt to unravel the dynamic layers that make Fife an area of both artistic and physical interest, as well as interpreting something of the perceived language of the place. Sitting across the water from the cities of both Edinburgh and Dundee, yet also adjacent to the open North Sea, the Kingdom of Fife is both connected to the greater world and resolutely of itself. It can be reached from all directions by iconic bridges and yet is not an island, but such a landscape permits the existence of half-seen truths and spaces. ‘Birl of Unmap’ is a response to one such place – a place of several pasts and many names in West Fife that has existed as an open cast mine, the long gone pit village of Lassodie, and most recently as a not-quite-fully realised land art vision of the post-modern architect Charles Jencks.

Currently known as St. Ninians, the area in question has existed in a strange limbo between purpose and public access for many years, though it was sold in 2021 for redevelopment as an eco-wellness centre. ‘Birl of Unmap’ is the telling of a place from different times and perspectives, of the land, of the art that Jencks installed there using decommissioned mining machinery, of the idea of the Final Void in both mining and cosmic terms and of what it means to know, to share a place and pass on bits of it with space allowed for retelling. Infused with field recordings from the earth, water, air, and industrial installations on-site, the album seeks to give space to the energies of a place and the landscape legacies of human and more than human interactions with it.

Drawing on academic research, oral histories, and the experiences of other Fife-based artists, as well as former miners and residents of the site, ‘Birl of Unmap’ stands as more than the sum total of aesthetic tropes, embodying an ambitious call to consider how we balance our own experiences and understandings with those of others. This is an invitation to wander through the layers and perhaps find something more of ourselves within them.

'Birl of Unmap' will be available in full on February 11, 2022. Cassette editions are available through Full Spectrum in the US by pre-order and The Dark Outside in the UK on release day.
There is also a limited edition CD available for pre-order (shipping from UK).

All physical versions will share artwork elements whilst each having an individual and unique aspect.

Reviews:

Elizabeth Alker - BBC Radio 3 Unclassified - "...will have you feeling whipped up in a salty breeze and slightly breathless with the coastal views and shoreline wilderness of Fife...her (Clare's) voice sounds like it's been haunting that coastline for centuries. Her words kind of bedevil their (Kinbrae's) really spacious soundscapes. It's a wonderful combination, I'm a big fan".

Sara Mohr-Pietsch - BBC Radio 3 Night Tracks - "Sound and psycho geography mapping land in music...creates a sonic swirl out of the landscape and history of Fife. It's a brand new collaboration between three Scottish musicians, the writer Clare Archibald, whose voice we heard and Kinbrae, twin brothers Mike and Andy Truscott, who bring warm brass, delicate percussion and electronics to the table. Elizabeth Alker played an early demo of theirs on Radio 3s Unclassified and it's wonderful to hear that whole album come to fruition."

A Closer Listen - "This album is built upon long, slowly shifting tones, underpinning the words of Archibald alongside other voices. There’s the occasional disruption to the drones, such as the busy drumming on “Peer” or the stamping percussion on “Warm Water Burn”. What sets Birl apart is the voices, from the declaimed opening statement of Murdo Eason to the soft comfort of Archibald on the closing track. Between those bookends, there’s a reminiscence by Peggy Crawford, and the poem “The Dead Pit” written by Duncan Crawford in 1962, read by Alex Black. Agnieszka Jadowska provides a more recent viewpoint on “Half Seen Truths of the M90”, focusing on the movement of people and aptly named after the motorway that runs past Lassodie. Kinbrae keep their compositions concise, though, with delicate touches (the percussion as mentioned, plus brass and subtle piano) colouring the eight pieces here. It’s a beautifully arranged work, with full credit to Clare Archibald for allowing space for the contributors but keeping the voices embedded in the music rather than sitting on top. It’s her research and recordings that give Birl Of Unmap a historical heft, the real sense of location and time. It is the sort of album you may dig out in 20 years and wonder what is now occurring in Lassodie – or St Ninian’s, or whatever it will be named. A subtle yet understated work on initial listen, Birl Of Unmap is a powerful meditation on psychogeography, place, and loss."

Into Creative - "This is an album the foundation of which relies on seemingly defined and unmovable concepts – North, South, East and West. From the vantage point of standing at the open door, the musical anchor points can seem simple enough: ambient washes and treated acoustic instruments with a soothing voice reciting equally beautiful and lulling poetic words which run not throughout but through the music, and at times switch over to change places. From a purely mechanical perspective, the cleverly arranged and glacial, minimally repetitive musical motifs allow the listener to create their own mind-music between each familiar consonance note. This is an album that is more than music; it is not merely a platform for the poetry of the deeply moving words supplied by Clare Archibald, which are augmented by the inclusion of the equally heartrending interviews of former miners from the pit, architects or former residents from its long lost village. Those words act as a site specific catalyst which I think is what holds and brought the entire project together."

Monorail Music - "Epic, gorgeously captivating collaboration"

The Quietus - "...the trio use poetry, fragments of testimony and a lilting soundtrack of strings, brass and earthy atmospherics to decode what turns a space into a place. The album paints a vivid picture of a land as time and people move through, its identity shifting as generations leave their mark. Flows of micro and macro, personal and historic observations seep through the music’s elegant swell and churn, evoking a state of constant flux."

The Skinny - "Birl of Unmap is a fascinating collaboration that tells the story of a place from different times and perspectives. Featuring a whole host of field recordings from the site as well as oral histories and experiences of other Fife residents and former miners, it’s a mesmerising record, which digs deep into the concept of time and space."

Iniquitous Glory - "Birl of Unmap brings the hidden forces of time, the concept and identity of place and the march of change to life in a stunning collection of ambient, instrumental, spoken word and industrial soundscapes."

credits

released February 11, 2022

Birl of Unmap is a fully collaborative project in which the 3 of us are present in many ways throughout

Music composed and arranged by Andy and Mike Truscott
Additional arranging by Clare Archibald

Words written and/or arranged by Clare Archibald
Album and track titles and concepts by Clare Archibald

Andy Truscott - synthesizers / piano / electronics / percussion / ableton live / field recordings / electromagnetic recordings

Mike Truscott - cornet / tenor horn / bass guitar / metallophone

Clare Archibald - words / vocals / harmonium / spinning top / field recordings / oral history recordings / research

Sebastian Selke - Cello

Additional words, directed by Clare Archibald:

Excavate of Other (the Unknowing) - Words written and spoken by Murdo Eason
Undersouls - Words spoken by Alex Black from the poem "The Dead Pit" by Duncan Gillespie (1962)
Carbide Fizz - Words spoken by Peggy Crawford
Half Seen Truths of the M90 - Words written and spoken by Agnieszka Jadowska

Produced by Ben Chatwin & Andy Truscott
Recorded by Ben Chatwin & Andy Truscott in Ceres, Fife
Mixed by Ben Chatwin at The Vennel Studio in Ceres
Artwork by Niall McCormack
Layout & design by Gretchen Korsmo
Mastered by Andrew Weathers

Thanks to:
Murdo Eason, Alex Black, Peggy Crawford, Agnieszka Jadowska, Andrew Demetrius, Gavin McGregor, Tahra Duncan Clark, Claire Baker, Janet Buist, Ian Moir, Billy Kay, Sara Ann Kelly at Carnegie library, Dunfermline, Lesley Botten, Fife Cultural Trust, Douglas Speirs, Kathryn Malcolm.

Wee girl playing at the site who agreed to being recorded for Carbide Fizz (with parental permission).

Our families

This album was made possible by a Fusion Fund Award from Help Musicians UK.

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K I N B R A E Scotland, UK

Kinbrae is the musical project of twin brothers Andy & Mike Truscott, based in Edinburgh and Fife, Scotland. Kinbrae play a mixture of brass, acoustic guitar, percussion and musique concrete to create a uniquely experimental yet accessible form of ambient, classical music. ... more

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