Liz Lochhead and Andrew Wasylyk / Still Life, Sweetheart
In early 2020, good fortune carried poet Liz Lochhead and musician/producer, Andrew Wasylyk through the sleet and hailstones of a wintry Hebridean storm over the sea to the Isle of Mull. Absconded, but now trapped by ferry cancellations, the two artists, along with producer Gordon Maclean, battened down the hatches at An Tobar, Tobermory, to embark on what all three wondered: could this possibly be our new project...?
Still Life, Sweetheart marks their second collaboration with this collection of five voice and piano pieces. Lochhead’s hushed voice, delivering sometimes simple and songlike good wishes, sometimes acute observations on love, life, longevity and - always - longing, lands beautifully among Wasylyk’s undulating melodies that exist in a space between the minimalist nocturnes of Erik Satie and the weightless progressions of Joanna Brouk.
Liz Lochhead and Andrew Wasylyk’s unique journey took them somewhere new and strange, to a place that felt as hopeful as it was vulnerable, and in the end is as hypnotic as it is intimate. Still Life, Sweetheart is a rare double-portrait where spoken-word, modern-classical, and maybe-jazz meet in a form that’s less lofty or remote than perhaps suggested by any of these genre-categories.
Here all is open, warm, infinitely accessible.
Available as a 5-track CD and digital download.
"It’s a good week to argue that poetry is the new rock’n’roll. Former Scots Makar Liz Lochhead and composer Andrew Wasylyk have resumed a collaboration first minted on Mull with Wasylyk’s band The Hazey Janes and saxophonist Steve Kettley. 'Still Life, Sweetheart' emerged during a few pre-Covid days on the island when the pair were stranded because of ferry cancellations, and comprises Lochhead’s soft lullaby delivery set against the barest of piano backing.
'Persimmons' attests to the power of an evocative memory, the account of an artist diligently sketching complemented by the gentle brushstrokes of piano. The moving 'Coming to Poetry' is Lochhead’s ode to Keats and the pivotal role of poetry as she grew up in the shadow of the Cuban missile crisis." THE SCOTSMAN
“We arranged to meet in Oban to catch a ferry to the isle of Mull to work with Gordon Maclean. Liz’s train was late, so we very nearly missed the ferry. We caught it by the skin of our teeth. And then, as we arrived, an Atlantic storm blew in and cancelled all the boats, so we were trapped.” Andrew Wasylyk talks to The Herald about the making of Still Life, Sweetheart Read in full
Video by Tommy Perman / www.surfacepressure.net
Liz Lochhead is a Glasgow-based writer. The former Makar (the National Poet of Scotland) from 2011-2016, she was awarded the Queen’s Gold Medal for Poetry 2015. Since her debut best-selling (for poetry anyhow) publication way back in 1972 Liz has also been a pioneering performance-poet, refusing to be either/or about “page-or-stage”. A prolific playwright, she’s the author of more than a score of both original works and acclaimed adaptations for the theatre. Music’s always played a big part, from her current two-hander intimate revue performances with saxophonist Steve Kettley to past collaborations with artists including the late, great Dundee singer-songwriter Michael Marra and Glasgow’s experimental hip-hop group Hector Bizerk.
Liz and Andrew first worked together with producer Gordon Maclean at Mull’s An Tobar on The Light Comes Back, the 2016 album by Liz Lochhead with The Hazey Janes and Steve Kettley.
Andrew Wasylyk is a Scottish musician and producer who has conceived and contributed to over twenty albums to date. These include seven albums as lead vocalist and guitarist with ongoing indie-pop group The Hazey Janes, and producing two lauded albums (including a French-thriller soundtrack) with electronic-experimental duo, Art Of The Memory Palace.
Wasylyk’s 2019 album, The Paralian, was shortlisted for Scottish Album Of The Year Award, 2019. His next solo record, Fugitive Light And Themes Of Consolation, will be released 4th September 2020 through Athens Of The North.
An Tobar was re-born as Tobermory’s creative and cultural beacon in 1997. This stunning building still embodies the character and learned roots of its Victorian school heritage.
It is now home to artists, performers and audiences all year round. Hosting 50 yearly exhibitions, gigs and shows, this creative sanctuary both fosters and showcases arts of all movements and mediums. A family of workshops, studios, recording rooms and performance spaces are home to artists of all veins, each with access to a creative space and the resources to develop and perform.