Tracks
1. sleamhnachadh
2. strì
3. stapach
4. pristealan
5. sàmhach
6. sruth
7. cuideam
8. fo làimh
9. fo
About New Album
You can listen preview of this album on this page. The album is also available on all streaming platforms and on Bandcamp.
leathaidean – Fells & MacGlone
Leathaidean, meaning ‘slopes’ or ‘hillsides’ in Scottish Gaelic, is a series of improvisations for shakuhachi and double bass recorded in 2022.
The music explores playing together as a series of encounters with zones and boundaries – textures and gradients, surfaces and resistances – with a spontaneous sense of purpose or direction, heading to and away from peaks, plateaus and troughs as they appear or fade from sight. The notion of ‘slopes’ or ‘hillsides’ then was a metaphor for the playing; walking, and the effort or effortlessness of ascent and descent, a metaphor for the musical energy expended. The tracks are named in response to the way we felt in playing and listening back to each one – stepping (stapach), flow (sruth), in hand (fo làimh) – an attitudinal naming, embodying daydreaming of a walk in the hills: heavy-going through bog, light-going on paths, climbing and sweating it out; sitting on a rock, silently looking.
Fells & MacGlone
Fells & MacGlone are active in the Glasgow improv scene, having played together since the early 2000s in different contexts, mainly around the Glasgow Improvisers Orchestra of which they are both founding members. They work as both a bass & shakuhachi and bass & electronics duo.
Nick Fells (https://nickfells.net) is a sound artist, composer and performer working with improvisation and electronics. Much of his work centres on collaboration with other instrumentalists and experimentation with live spatial textures. He has interests in live sampling, field recording, live phonography, and computer-based spatial sound processing as well as music & disability and intercultural aspects of composition. He is Professor of Sonic Practice at the University of Glasgow, Scotland, and is a shakuhachi player, which he studied under Yoshikazu Iwamoto. He co-curates an experimental music archive, Never Come Ashore (https://nevercomeashore.bandcamp.com).
Ùna MacGlone (https://www.unamacglone.co.uk) is a double bassist whose work spans improvisation, pop, folk, jazz, and classical genres. Her career began as a freelance orchestral bassist working with Scotland’s national orchestras. In the experimental music scene she curates concerts, co-runs Iorram Records (https://iorramrecords.bandcamp.com) and is a founder member of Glasgow Improvisers Orchestra. She has collaborated with a wide range of musicians including Tom Bancroft, Satoko Fuji, Rab Noakes, David Byrne and George Lewis, and her improvisation and composition has featured internationally including in the US, Canada, Germany, across Scotland and the UK, including live performances on BBC Radio 3 and televised performances in Germany and Japan. She is head of a new online Masters in Creative Arts Practice at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland.
Credits
Recorded January/February 2022, University of Glasgow
Recorded/mastered by Nick Fells
Graphic design: @projectgroundscore
Published by Elektramusic Berlin – Paul Clouvel
All rights reserved 2025 © Nick Fells and Ùna MacGlone
2025 ℗ Elektramusic Berlin – Paul Clouvel