Ear to the Ground Scotland

Dec 10 2023 3

Ear to the Ground Scotland Podcast artwork

We are Scotland’s EAR TO THE GROUND! - keeping you in the loop with the interviews and gig alerts from Scotland’s top-notch composers. We’ll be digging deep to find out what makes these composers tick, hearing the processes behind their latest compositions and finding out why on earth someone would want to be a composer! The podcast is hosted by Aileen Sweeney and Ben Eames, two musicians based in Glasgow who’ll be asking the questions, bringing the banter and getting to know these fantastic composers. Follow and subscribe to keep your ear to ground for Scotland’s newest and most exciting music.

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Timothy Cooper: Shadows That in Darkness Dwell

Dec 10 2023 40 mins

Timothy Cooper is a composer and performer of electroacoustic music. Tim’s work is often collaborative, working with musicians, artists, and poets amongst others. Since 2019, Tim has been working with Ensemble 1604 composing a concert length show called Shadows That In Darkness Dwell that explores the music and life of English renaissance composer John Dowland. Click Here to purc

Henry McPherson: Improvising, Moss and his new opera ”Maud”

Jul 12 2023 40 mins

Henry McPherson is a musician and artist working across composition, improvisation, and pedagogical practices. His work has been shown internationally across diverse settings – from concert halls to galleries, bathrooms to dance studios, parks and warehouses to cafes, virtual halls and radio. His current creative interests lie in the intersections of improvisation performance and

Neil Tomas Smith: Stop Motion Music

Feb 20 2023 36 mins

In this episode we caught up with Neil Tòmas Smith and discussed his upcoming album Stop Motion Music. The CD has been several years in the making and features musicians from across genres including Carla Rees on flutes and Delia Stevens on percussion, as well as harpist Esther Swift, cellists Duncan Strachan and Justyna Jablonska and jazz drummer Simon Roth. Neil is fascinated by

Gemma McGregor: Music and Tales from Orkney

Aug 12 2022 36 mins

Gemma McGregor is a freelance composer, performer and curator from Orkney, whose music has been described as polystylistic, whilst crossing the boundaries of musical genres. Gemma has been writing music with a sense of place either by referencing sounds from the environment, history or dialect poetry. Gemma plays Orkney traditional music and has researched its links with Norwegian

Gareth Williams: Seduced into Singing

Jul 22 2022 48 mins

Gareth Williams is a composer and songwriter making work that ranges from opera, theatre and songwriting to chamber and orchestral music. His compositions seek to find new relationships, participants, collaborators and audiences for new opera, music theatre, and song, to shed light on stories and communities that have been overlooked, and to explore ideas of vulnerability in vocal

Fergus Hall: Hydrophones, Henderson and a Jellyfish Rave

May 31 2022 44 mins

In this episode we chat to Fergus Hall about everything from composing with hydrophone recordings, Hamish Henderson's poetry and jellyfish raves! Fergus is a composer and musician from the west of Scotland whose creative practice is focused around how a musician can act as a creative facilitator. This stems from Fergus’ interests in jazz and traditional music practices which ofte

Stuart MacRae: Ursa Minor

Apr 20 2022 48 mins

Born in Inverness in 1976, Stuart MacRae has established himself as one of the most distinctive of contemporary composers. Stuart’s music has been performed at the Royal Opera House Covent Garden, the BBC Proms and the Edinburgh International Festival, by ensembles including the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, Scottish Ensemble and London Sinfonietta. Often inspired by aspects of nat

Rūta Vitkauskaitė: Konnakol, Canntaireach and Collaborative Composing

Feb 16 2022 44 mins

Rūta Vitkauskaitė is a composer, performer and curator whose work in music crossesconventional boundaries. She studied at the Lithuanian Academy of Music before moving toLondon to complete her PhD at The Royal Academy of Music. Her music has been described as'resembling natural forces - seemingly unorganised and chaotic forces sticking together a highly dynamic, vital and unpredi

Janet Beat: Pioneering Knob Twiddler

Jan 19 2022 42 mins

Janet Beat is a composer living in Scotland whose impressive career spans back to the late 1950’s. She is widely considered to be a pioneer of electronic music in Britain and in 2019, Janet was the first person to be awarded a Lifetime Achievement Award by Scottish Women Inventing Music, a collection of music creators and industry professionals pushing for gender equality in the

Rufus Isabel Elliot: Voices, Feelings and Unspoken Words

Oct 20 2021 53 mins

In this episode we caught up with Rufus Isabel Elliot who told us about OVER/AT, a trans, non-binary, and gender-diverse music-making world, as well as telling us about upcoming releases of Rufus's own music. Rufus is a composer and musician from Tower Hamlets, based now near Gairloch. In the last couple of years, Rufus has worked with the likes of Sound Festival Scotland, Red Note