Charlotte Hathaway and Mike Vass · 2016
The Dead Stations
Live music, recorded audio drama and animation: what happens after a passenger alights at a deserted station in a forest.
Recorded Rusty Squash Horn Studios, Reid Hall · Mixed Gloworm, Berkeley Street · Tour 26 February Sleat, 27 February Inverie, 28 February Ardfern · Queen’s Hall 11 March Edinburgh
The back of the sleeve
- Written and directed
- Charlotte Hathaway
- Music
- Mike Vass
- Voice and viola
- Mairi Campbell
- Soundtrack
- released 2 March 2016, Unroofed: Mike Vass, tenor guitar, fiddle and mandolin · Yoann Mylonakis, piano · Mairi Campbell, viola and violin · Euan Burton, basses · Scott Mackay, drums
- Recorded
- Rusty Squash Horn Studios, Pollokshields, and Reid Hall, University of Edinburgh
- Mixed
- Old Gloworm studios, Berkeley Street
People
Charlotte HathawayMairi CampbellEuan BurtonScott MackayYoann Mylonakis
- Written and directed
- Charlotte Hathaway
- Music
- Mike Vass
- Voice and viola
- Mairi Campbell
- Soundtrack
- released 2 March 2016, Unroofed: Mike Vass, tenor guitar, fiddle and mandolin · Yoann Mylonakis, piano · Mairi Campbell, viola and violin · Euan Burton, basses · Scott Mackay, drums
- Recorded
- Rusty Squash Horn Studios, Pollokshields, and Reid Hall, University of Edinburgh
- Mixed
- Old Gloworm studios, Berkeley Street
- Supported by
- Creative Scotland, Arts Trust Scotland, Edinburgh College of Art
The show
A piece inspired by a train journey on a remote line and by abstract ideas about Little Red Riding Hood, written and directed by Charlotte Hathaway, who had managed the Neil Gunn voyage. Vass wrote the score and, for the first time seriously, two songs: Sleepless and Eyes Fixed, sung by Mairi Campbell, who also played viola while Vass played tenor guitar and violin. The tour opened at Sabhal Mòr Ostaig on Skye on 26 February 2016 and ran to Inverie, Ardfern, Banchory, Drumnadrochit and the Queen’s Hall in Edinburgh on 11 March.
The celeste at Reid Hall, sampled during these sessions, went on to play on seven tracks of Notes From the Boat. Two singles came out of it, Eyes Fixed and Sleepless Again, and an animation of Eyes Fixed by Gavin C Robinson. The score was released separately as The Dead Stations (Original Soundtrack).
Tracks
- 01Roads that lead nowhere
- 02Were we meant to stop here?
- 03Part of the landscape
- 04Someone's been here
- 05I've seen them before
- 06Is that why there's a map
- 07An inch to the right
- 08Lucky twigs
- 09We shouldn't have stopped
- 10Someone will hear you
- 11A trick of the light
- 12Eyes fixed
- 13I know her
- 14Sleepless again
- 15Thoughts underground
Photographs
Cuttings
A line from each piece. Where the full piece is online, it is linked.
Folk Radio UK
“After this short run of appearances around Scotland, The Dead Stations has established itself as an admirable and fascinating live performance.”
The Wee Review
“Overall, it is a satisfyingly unsettling tale, perhaps made more so by the serenely beautiful music”
The Wee Review
“Mike Vass’s atmospheric composition is expertly performed by himself on tenor guitar and violin, Mairi Campbell on vocals and viola, and Yoann Mylonakis on piano…
Connections
- The Dead Stations (Original Soundtrack) The soundtrack
- Eyes Fixed The first song
- Sleepless Again The second song
- In the Wake of Neil Gunn Charlotte Hathaway’s previous project with Vass
- Notes From the Boat Where the Reid Hall celeste turned up