About

How to tell a story without saying too much? How to tap the oldest wisdoms, hardest truths, most tender glances and cracked wit and political rage – how to distill all of that into humble miniatures?

That turned out to be only the beginning!

Enchanted by the potent atmosphere of James’s tiny prose pieces, intrigued by the notion of an inescapable daily creative ritual, Aidan O’Rourke – Scottish fiddler, composer and one third of the folk supertrio Lau – decided to write a tune every day in response. The result is a major new body of 365 fiddle tunes, which together form a significant new addition to the Scottish traditional music repertoire. Aidan’s melodies are sparse, exploratory and emotive, paired with kaleidoscopic accompaniments from Kit Downes (harmonium/piano), Esther Swift (harp) and Sorren Maclean (guitar). Highlights have been released on CD as 365: Volume One (May 2019) and 365: Volume Two (released 9 August 2019).

So that’s how it came together. Now all 365 stories and songs have been recorded and the complete collection will go on tour around Scotland as a sound installation. See here for the tour dates. James reads many of the stories himself, with other storytellers — artists, actors, friends young and old — adding a handsome range of voices from across Scotland.

It’s completely free: we hope you enjoy.

With support from Creative Scotland, PRS for Music Foundation’s The Open Fund, the University of Glasgow’s Scottish Literature department, BBC Scotland, the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, Scottish Poetry Library, An Tobar, Reveal Records and Penguin Books.

365:Stories and Music is a free piece of public art but if you'd like to support the project you can do this through Aidan's Patreon page here.