Richard Luke - Glass Island (2019)

Glasgow-based composer and producer Richard Luke’s LP Glass Island explores the tensions of living on an island in the wake of referendums on leaving the EU and Scottish independence. The songs, explains Luke, have “confidence and strength, but also a fragility and drama that makes them almost wistful and nostalgic.”

The album was written and recorded collaboratively with violinist Amira Bedrush-McDonald. The duo has created a collection of lushly arranged instrumentals, inspired by the epic sound of bands like Sigur Ros, Arcade Fire and Jon Hopkins. Luke’s stately piano and Bedrush-McDonald’s swooping strings drive the record, with the added weight of subtle synths, washes of warm electronics and the pitter-patter of programmed beats. The songs are at once tense and disquieting, but with an ever glowing optimism.