'One thin cry / Between wavecrash and circling wolves of wind'
Writing
I'm a Scottish writer, poet and sound artist, born in Glasgow in 1972. I’ve lived in Edinburgh since 1995. I'm very fond of cats.
I’m half of Blind Roads Press with Murdo Eason of From Hill to Sea and half of Seacliff Press with author and poet Mark Valentine. You can see what we've produced on the Publications page.
For a number of years, I ran the Edinburgh Drift project, the component parts of which are now incorporated into this site. You can read how I originally—and perhaps a little hyperbolically—described it here. I'm still wandering these paths, but now under my own name.
My email details are on the contact page. You can also find me on Mastodon. I like Mastodon; it feels like a good place.
Music
I’ve been involved in experimental music since 1990, and my work takes in acoustic and electric instruments, electronics, field recordings and other things which interest me. Over the years, my recordings have become less abrasive and more expansive in scope and duration. I particularly love quiet music and my own work has become quieter and more minimalistic as the years have gone on. My latest release is Wavecrash One.
Between 2000 and 2003 I curated the techNOH netlabel, one of the first of its kind, with over 30 free releases of cutting-edge experimental electronic music by artists around the world.
I ran the Dust, Unsettled CD label from 2006 until 2016, releasing my own work and that of others.
In addition to my own music, I've worked with a number of others over the last 30 years:
Inversion, with Caroline McKenzie, a largely improvisatory electronics duo; we recorded a lot of material but sadly released very little.
Space Weather, with Caroline and Andrew Paine. Two albums of trio interstellar explorations were released, as well as a short EP.
Radios, with Richard Youngs. This is/was a ten album series of conceptual releases, each focused on a particular set of sound sources, processes and the notion of chiasmus.
Fougou with Matthew Shaw, exploring the sonics of stones and the Other.
The lines at the head of this page ('One thin cry...') are from The Wreck of the Archangel by Orcadian poet George Mackay Brown which can be found in his collection of the same name (London: John Murray, 1989).