Ross & Ali - Symbiosis - Album cover art
So they finally did eh? They made an album! Those of you in the Scottish folk fraternity will be well aware of this pair. For those who are not, you've picked a good time to get to know them.Both of these guys are truly amazing multi instrumentalists, I've known them for a long time and had many a wild tune with them both. Along with Gordon Duncan Jr they represent Perthshire's finest. Both musically and craic wise. Back in the day when this crew came in to the pub you knew things were gonna be taken up a level.Ali and Ross cut their teeth in the vale of Atholl pipe band and more specifically were taught by Gordon Duncan. Now Gordon Duncan, well... put simply; Gordon is a legend of Scottish Music. I didn't know the man well myself but here's a wee story that Duncan Chisholm told at the 'Just for Gordon' tribute concert at celtic connections. It may give you a glimpse of his character.
"Gordon was playing with Wolfstone on a regular basis and we were heading for another album, so he said. "Why don't you come down. I've got some tunes I'd like to play for you and maybe we can record them. Maybe the band might be interested?" So I went down. It was hot! A really hot July day. So I ended up in Edradour and in to the house and he was there by himself, the fire was on. It was roasting! Really hot! He was sitting there with a t-shirt on and a can of lager and his practice chanter. He said "I'll just run through the tunes, you play the tape" and he played solid for about half an hour. By this time most of lager was gone and he was stripped to the waist, he was sweating buckets, as was I. I noticed that at his feet there was a low whistle, a low metal whistle. I thought; at some point he's going to have to put down the practice chanter and pick up the whistle because he was scarlet. Sure enough, he went another ten minutes and then stopped. He picked up the whistle, got up and went over; and then, then he stoked the fire with it and then off back to the practice chanter again."
Now both Ross & Ali make no secret of what a great influence Gordon has been on them but this post isn't about Gordon. It's about Ross and Ali and no matter how tied they are to Gordon's legacy they are forging their own paths. It's great to hear those paths to coalesce, to come together and make a melodious symbiose of Perthshire excellence.Which leads me into describing the Album cover art...It's pretty self explanatory...
symbiosis[sim-bee-oh-sis]noun, plural symbioses [sim-bee-oh-seez]
- Biology.the living together of two dissimilar organisms, as in mutualism, commensalism, amensalism, or parasitism.
- Psychiatry. a relationship between two people in which each person is dependent upon and receives reinforcement, whether beneficial or detrimental, from the other.
- any interdependent or mutually beneficial relationship between two persons, groups, etc.
Ali sent through some images of various, cool and colourful graphic novel, marvel comics inspired stuff. Told me to concentrate on the biological definition of the word and I set about smashing blobs together in various different ways - see the development concepts at the bottom. I went about creating these in different way than usual in that I used 3d modelling and Adobe after effects to create particle systems and smash them together. Working in 3d is complex and requires patience, the parameters are endless and getting something that looks cool as a still image took quite some time and a lot of experimentation. The final image definitely has a vibe of marvel comics, mainly the colour I think. It's quite spiderman?!?!?BUY THE ALBUM! Andrea Gobbi 'Wan' has done his usually amazing job on the sound of this one. The output from Carrier Waves really is quite astonishing. But what set's this album apart is that symbiotic relationship between Ali and Ross. What struck me was the duet Whistle playing in particular, it has the same kind of magical x-factor that siblings singing in harmony has. Like Willie & Tabs MacAskill from the Lush Rollers, the Unthanks or perhaps, on the instrumental side... Angus & Malcolm Young of AC/DC. They may not be related by birth, but through Gordon and living in each others pockets since childhood they have something that is really unique and special. There is no way to quantify scientifically why long term associations like this can be heard in music but it is possible and this album proves it.