Uncle Roland's Flying Machine

Description

Genre-defying original acoustic music from some of Scotland's finest musicians. Eastern European dance music, Middle Eastern rhythms and virtuoso performances.

This album is our most innovative recording yet. Written over the last couple of years, it is made up almost entirely of original music, and the breadth of influence is readily apparent. Although the klezmer and Balkan roots of the band are still there, "Uncle Roland" takes them in a new and distinctive direction, so that the band now sounds only like itself - from the strands of Eastern Europe, South America and the Middle East, we have distilled something quintessentially our own. 8232; 8232;
8232;There are also plenty of stories behind the tunes, which makes them very much "us". Pete's Uncle Roland himself was indeed building the eponymous flying machine right up till his death. The rest of the music was inspired by (amongst other things) dusty Algerian ruins, wide open Lincolnshire landscapes, policemen looking the other way, Elizabethan dances, and the sublime moment during wallpaper stripping when it all comes off in one big strip. 8232; 8232;For me, perhaps the best thing is that the album is very much a group sound. Although certain instruments carry melodies whilst others handle accompaniments, the collective sound is one in which no single instrument is dominant. Even when there is a beautiful tune soaring over the top, if you listen carefully you can always hear all the fantastic stuff bubbling up underneath.