Winter solstice. Hills of Hoy, Orkney 📷 Cooper Snr
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Erland Cooper
@ErlandCooper
Scottish composer & producer. Folded Landscapes, Out Now 2023
Erland Cooper’s posts
Arrived into Stromness, Orkney by ferry. The giant sea stack, Old Man of Hoy cast a long shadow. It feels like a Norman Ackroyd etching 📷 @StudioOrphir
When I was a kid I bought ‘Wild Wood’ and was nicknamed a pubeless Rhinestone Cowboy by a bully. Anyway, it’s been an absolute pleasure to co-write songs with Paul on his new album. Happy release day. Kevin, piss off.. 🖕
A Nightingale Sings Outside Our Window. I wrote a new piece for @ChrisHawkinsUK with listeners’ recordings for ‘Sounds of Change’ played at dawn to highlight mental health awareness. A snapshot of this moment in time, part remembrance, part celebration. Thank you 🕊 Ex
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The ferry is on its way to collect me, and the sea is calm. Finally time to go home to Orkney. Back to Stromness.
I’ve released a record each spring for 3 years. Today I announce the final album, completing my Orkney triptych. It’s called 'Hether Blether' and the first song, ‘Longhope', is out now. The album is available for digital and physical pre-order, today 🦅🙏
erlandcooper.ffm.to/hetherblether
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Hope let’s you dream during the darkest of days. Dreams let ideas form and fall like the lightest of feathers. They may soften the hardest blow. #Letmusiclive. A heartfelt thanks to and my dear musicians and friends who joined me side by side to play. Thank you 🕊
Pinching myself...so I'll be playing live in session for on Tuesday this week, aye!! No hiding behind my wee tape recorder now. Thank you so much for having me and all your overwhelming support 🦉🌊🙏
bbc.co.uk/programmes/m00
Arranged a new piece, a hopeful present for with a little help from some friends. From a junior to elder states-person, a sort of murmuration of voice. Like bird spotting, listen in tomorrow at breakfast 🕊#supernature
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Tonight I play the hall and I am not alone. I have the great pleasure of sharing a stage with exceptional musicians and friends, side by side with a real audience, as well as one safely at home. Join us on a ferry home to Orkney Ex tickets.barbican.org.uk/choose-seats/1
Tried to fly like a gannet - airborne for 1 second of pure joy, recreating a childhood memory to last a lifetime. My favourite Orkney film, now on 🦅🙏
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I get messages and texts from folk when a song is played on air. I love that. Radio truly connects doesn’t it? Thank you for featuring me today. Listen back to her 2020 recommends day here 🦉🙏
12 albums, 8 EP’s, countless productions, commissions & records for others & after a decade, I’m happy to say I sign my first major record deal as a solo artist, partnering with for the next chapter. From fledgling to some kind of flight! Thank you 🕊
I arranged this piece for from junior to elder states-person. Thank you for the messages during & after broadcast. I was very moved by the response to it & the kindness of those that contributed 🕊 📷 #supernature
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If you've been to orkney, please share your photographs. I'm very fond of a picture from the side of the board into Stromness.
#TimsTwitterListeningParty
Live music & venues can transport an audience somewhere else for a moment. I’d like the Barbican hall to feel like a ferry, crossing the North Sea to Orkney. Join my nest of musicians + soloists with for a special concert . Let’s play 🕊
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A landmark moment for me, very humbling. This is the largest show of my career. Something I’ve only ever dreamed. So, we'll walk on stage with a lucky feather & we’ll try our very best to transport this great hall, to the Orkney Islands Ex🙏📷
Ring of Brodgar, Orkney. A giant Neolithic stone circle, the centre of ancient Britain, a sundial of ritualistic importance or perhaps just a place to meet on a fair day 📷
Join myself & for a special Monday 26th 9pm UK, listening back to 'Sule Skerry'. I'm inviting special guests onboard our Orkney trip - visual artist and close collaborators Join us for blether🥃#TimsTwitterListeningParty
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Hether Blether is out now. Trilogy complete. I hope you find something to enjoy within it’s vanishing islands. To anyone joining this journey or finishing it with me, thank you. Here's to jumping in the North sea, in your Sunday best🕊Ex📸
vimeo.com/423701959
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Carve the Runes
Then Be Content
With Silence
Sign up to be part of a journey to unearthing my new album. The only existing copy is planted deep in a landscape, to be exhumed (and released) June 2024 🕊
mkx.lnk.to/erlandcooper
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Ann Marwick’s field recordings are across my Orkney trilogy. Found this alt variation of Longhope - a poem read by her last summer. She was gifted the words by poet George Mackay Brown on her daughters birth. What do you think of this true orcadian dialect? It sings to me 🕊
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Folded Landscapes is released today. I hope in this new work, a listener will be rewarded for their patience from a cold, glacial ascent by a slowly thawing, burning hope. To friendship, collaboration & the natural world, an ever present catalyst for creation, thank you 🕊 Ex
Back in Stromness, orkney. In the same 2 minutes perched here, I spotted a solan goose, shalder, bonxie and ofcourse, the maalie. A little lighter, safer, happier. Home
Thank you for your incredible support for my music. Genuinely blown away, like a gannet in an Orkney storm through a sea mist... bouncing off the rocks 🌊🙏
Happy to share a new song with you. It’s called ‘Haar’, and it’s from a new album, Sule Skerry. Listen and pre-order now . Thank you for launching it today!🦉 🌊 🙏 Ex erlandcooper.lnk.to/Haar
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Hether Blether unfurling on all day. A huge thank you for your love and support to alternative music. A true, working ecosystem 🕊Ex
Where the only existing copy of my album is hidden is marked with a very special stone. It has two distinct engravings with a feather on the rear🪶
This beautiful piece was made by sculptor Jo Sweeting. Only if you find it, should you dig at all. As years go by seek gently 🕊
Truly remarkable! Victoria & Dan Rhodes. They’ve figured it out. The’ve explored the outside world. They’ve found it. A year & half in soil. They’ve dug up my planted tape in Orkney. They’ve called my mobile. Nestling in the heather in the shadow of Brinkies Brae 🕊
Brass Monkey by Rankin & Cooper
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That pub in my photo was the Brass Monkey. If you zoom in on the mirror you might see me and my bud @ErlandCooper
Very pleased to share ‘Murmuration' with you. A companion album to 'Solan Goose'. A continuous, ambient work, over 3 migrations and in collaboration with artist . Artwork donated by Mr Norman Ackroyd. OUT 11 | 07
Happy Sunday. I’ve a new song for you this week to say thank you. It’s called ‘Holm Sound’. I’ll share the sheet music later if you like? It’s a simple feather of a thing.. 🕊 📷 @StudioOrphir
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Happy Christmas 📷 Stromness, Orkney 2006. Possibly the same seagull (white maa) on the chimney pot there today - they can live up to 40 years old, probably watched me and my brothers grow up🦉
I admire for including an odd, 90% instrumental, alternative classical record, peppered with local field recordings, on their shortlist. This says more about their nurturing of an ecosystem of the arts, than it does my work. Thank you🙏
#TimsTwitterListeningParty
I scored a 3 part radio series for about the deep ecology of forests. Full of folklore, science, hope & wonder with contributions from - scientists, writers and conservationists. ‘Under the Canopy’
I’m often asked who’s reading the snippets of poetry in my records, as the voice is so singular. It’s Scottish musician and her work and 2 solo albums are filled with magic. Very thankful 🦉
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I met writer John Burnside in Orkney. We blether, travel & shelter from weather in birdhides, cairns & my folk’s house. From Bay of Skaill blue, Neolithic stones & vanishing islands, an honour to spend time with him & producer Dec 29 🦉📷
First of the tide. This is the postcard I got the lyric from...
#TimsTwitterListeningParty
I’ve put together an hours show for Freak Zone this Sunday eve, featuring some Orcadian dialect, myth & mythology, local bird song, as well a collection of curious tunes linked to #Orkney. Thank you🙏 #dictaphone #fieldrecording
bbc.co.uk/programmes/b09
Plotting a course to Sule Skerry. Sule comes from the norse word for Gannet. My diary tomorrow says, call Willie Sinclair to see if he’ll take and I on Merlin 40 miles west of Orkney’s mainland via Sule Stack.. 🦅
Today ‘Peedie Breeks’ made playlist! To celebrate, here’s me throwing a stone 300 miles out to sea in slow motion. A fine Orkney pastime. Thank you @ChrisHawkinsUK & team 🕊Ex
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This winter solstice I wanted to give a personal thank you, in the form of new music. Have a peaceful festive season and a happy new year. I hope you enjoy this surprise EP of choral variations. Eynhallow, featuring the exceptional 🕊🙏
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To celebrate 88 keys of the piano, here’s an arrangement of ‘Solan Goose’ for 8 pianos, 1 violin, glockenspiel & tape loop. A gentle experiment of countermelody, aiming to mimic the effect of space echo & bird flight, with a group of exceptional artists
phases.lnk.to/pianoday
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Tune into 14:30. I’ll be talking birds, orkney & tape loops live with @ChrisHawkinsUK 🙏 🦉 📼
For those seeking, I wrote a song with which features on new series ‘Without Sin’ starring Johnny Harris & Vicky Mcclure. It’s called ‘Burn Out’. Writing with Paul is like bird spotting - something always reveals itself, flies off, lands elsewhere 🕊
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I’m at I’m making a new record. It’s my final record in an Orkney trilogy. Thank you for all the close encouragement and support. It’s called.. 📸
"The essence of Orkney's magic is silence, loneliness and the deep marvellous rhythms of sea and land, darkness and light"-George Mackay Brown
Solan Goose 2018 (Sky)
Sule Skerry 2019 (Sea)
Hether Blether 2020 (Land)
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Design
erlandcooper.ffm.to/hetherblether
Very pleased to share 'Seachange' with you. A companion album to 'Sule Skerry'. A continuous, ambient work, over 3 Tides and in collaboration with artist Leo Abrahams. Artwork image by Mr Norman Ackroyd. OUT 23 OCT. Pre-save here 🙏
ffm.to/seachange
Sule Skerry has been set out to sea today! I hope you enjoy the journey, via train to Edinburgh, then Inverness, bus to Scrabster and the ferry over the Pentland Firth into Stromness, Orkney. Happy release day 🌊🙏 erlandcooper.lnk.to/suleskerry
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Thank you so much for buying and listening to Hether Blether, you even managed to get it into the official album charts. Your messages of enthusiasm and support have been really touching. Here's me recording the quartet in Donegal, with some feathers 🦉🙏 Ex 📷 Attica
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Introducing Landform - feat Hether Blether now has it’s own ambient companion, out Nov 26th, presave here. It’s tape loops were drowned in the north sea, dried in gales & sun then buried in Orkney soil during lockdown to finish the album 🙏
erlandcooper.ffm.to/landform
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Delighted to be playing live for for her ‘art is everywhere’ show celebrating the Turner prize 2019 join for free! Dec3. Coming into land off tour, on the show that encouraged me to fly, overlooking the sea. Bringing you an owl feather 🌊🙏 Ex
Happy spring equinox. 5 years ago I released Solan Goose, starting a very new chapter. I performed in a RSPB wetlands centre that week, as geese flew overhead. The album was as much a celebration of the natural world in itself, as it was a beginning. Thank you for listening 🕊
Beautiful start to the year and response to NEST. Last night’s first flight felt celestial and joyous. Watching people come together under the light and sound was a little bit of magic. She flies again tonight and tomorrow eve 6pm. Come celebrate 🦉 #welcometotheforrest
Sat in the studio 1000 miles apart listening to a live audio stream of birds getting on with their day in Bay of Skaill.. could not be happier! Transported via a microphone in the landscape. Can even hear an Orkney bee.
The best way to get to Orkney is by boat. Your ferry is leaving Scrabster (north of Inverness) at 9pm sharp. We'll sail the Pentland firth and drop into Stromness harbour. Don’t be late for a crossing with Who's on board?⛴️
#TimsTwitterListeningParty
🦅 thank you for including Sule Skerry among such a fine nest of Scottish records! Flying like a Curlew back to Orkney, ears wide open Ex #SAYaward #musicdeclares
With the first of the tide, when the day breaks with light and the seagulls cry, I'm awake...
Thank you for setting this new song out to sea today🦉 🌊 🙏 Hope you find some stillness in the storm: ErlandCooper.lnk.to/FOTT
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As you asked, for those that missed an evening together. Rebroadcasting, on demand, from today & during lockdown Sharing my full live show with & guests 🙏 Ex
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I often get asked for my favourite places to visit in Orkney. So here you go, a 10 page fold out album companion - Guide, walks and bird spots. Only available from independent record stores. Design Photography 🦉
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To believe in the sea
as ebb and swell,
as deep home, as home-from-home.
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Several hundred squeezed aboard the ferry last night. By way of thanks, you can now listen to the crossing here for 1 month 🕊 Streets of Stromness 📷 athome.womad.co.uk/erland-cooper/
This spring equinox is the anniversary of Solan Goose. She gave flight to a solo career only a few years ago today. I’m humbled by all your support. To celebrate & give thanks, it’s my pleasure to introduce a re-pressing combined into a very special boxset. Pre-order 19:00 GMT 🕊
The final song Sule Skerry. Sule Skerry is a real island north west of Orkney. I was due to travel there with . An adventure for another day to hope for. It features singing a guide vocal - naturally I kept it as is.
#TimsTwitterListeningParty
A big thank you to for playing my new song, Longhope. Only you would debut it's full unedited self with full on Orcadian blether, poetry & field recordings start to finish! What a joy. Listen back here🦉🙏 Ex
bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m0
Thank you for such kind words & for all the support generally, for me and my strange music. 🙏🦉
“It’s a beautiful record. 11 pieces, each taking their title from the feathered residents of Orkney. It’s evocative, wistful, moving and comforting all at once."
Standing on sky taken by the magic eye 🦉 Hether Blether will be out in 3 weeks - an album about landscape, community and myth. A 3 year, 3 record journey that has taken me further than I could ever imagine. Thank you 🙏 erlandcooper.ffm.to/hetherblether
Sule Skerry now has it’s very own ambient sibling, Seachange is out and streaming. Thank you to all those who pre-saved it. I hope it transports you to a different, more gentle place. It’s held me safe for a few months but now it’s yours Ex 🌊 🙏
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Thank you . It says a great deal to me about your rich ecosystem and support of the arts in Scotland that my 90% instrumental album, soaked in Orkney field recordings, made your shortlist. Respect 🙏 📷 Rory Barnes
Immense honour to collaborate with John Burnside & for Could listen to his words, voice and stories all day. He wrote 5 new works on our trip. I seem as giddy as child at the small details 🦅📷 bbc.co.uk/programmes/m00
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Our NEST has landed Lloyd Park, London. 3 nights only, 6pm-9:30, first flight...tonight!! Free to all.🦉🙏 #welcometotheforest
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View from inside the dwarfie stane on hoy. A huge block of hollowed-out, red sandstone shaped 3000 years ago using stone, muscle and patience. Looking out for a pair of white tailed sea eagles, last nested in Orkney 145 years ago! 🦅📷
Delighted to be commissioned to open the first London Borough of Culture @WFculture19, collaborating with the ground breaking . Our new work NEST will be a large, sonic light experience in Lloyd park, reflecting a haven of green spaces, birdsong and community 🙏🦉
‘Haar’ is a sea fret or fog. In Orkney during the summer when warm air passes over the cold North Sea, it can form for miles and quickly consume an entire harbour or flock of fishing boats. Watch the film directed by here 🌊🙏
erlandcooper.lnk.to/Haar
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Woke at dusk to record a tape for true gent @ChrisHawkinsUK . Off the ferry, we walk down the streets of Stromness. Listen back to home town glory here. A perfectly timed & tuned cuckoo makes an appearance.. aye! 🌊🙏
Dreamed the other day I took a walk on Rackwick bay. Where land meets sea, meets sky and me. Will share some new music with you this week. 'Peedie Breeks' out this Thursday 🕊Ex 📸 Hoy, Orkney
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Less a tour date, more a tour guide. Along with field recordings, dialogue, poetry & new arrangements of some of my music, I’m streaming a special half hour ferry crossing from studio to Orkney. A binaural mix for headphones & it’s free, 8pm 11/3 GMT 🕊
athome.womad.co.uk/erland-cooper/
An Orkney trip, 8pm this eve Free voyage, no registration, just headphones required. It’s a bit like slow radio🦉 📷 athome.womad.co.uk/erland-cooper/
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Peedie Breeks is out tomorrow from a new album called Hether Blether. Aye, those are titles and I’m ok with that. I adore dialect and lost words. Without searching, any idea what they mean? 🦉 📸
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One of the most rewarding projects I've ever worked on, collaborating with @vine_collective @jjbulley @WFculture19. Such a fine team of individuals, engineers, producers, community voices & public, coming together in commune, under a celestial Nest.🦉🙏
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New album reverse and final tracklist. Alex took this shot from inside the Dwarfie Stane, a Neolithic burial chamber with an eerie acoustic 📷 erlandcooper.ffm.to/hetherblether
Re-amping sound & capturing reverb inside a Neolithic chambered cairn. It’s older than Egypt’s pyramids and designed for the same reason. A sort of sonic postcard of landscape and memory. Cuween, Orkney 📷
Happy Hogmanay. To all who came to concerts, listened, travelled, broadcast, shared, collaborated with and inspired me, thank you. Fly into 2020 🦅 Ex 📷
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Really excited to announce my new album. It’s called Solan Goose - watch the third single and final film shot in #Orkney by here. Thank you @vine_collective. It takes flight on March 23rd 🙏
erlandcooper.lnk.to/SolanGoose
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We flew all through the night from the angel of the north to land safely to nest in with Good morning, first of the tide Ex
Longhope, available soon in the early hours, here’s a little talk & thought on it 🙏
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Happy spring equinox, inside. Film inside a film, piano inside a piano, tape inside a tape, studio inside a studio, and song inside a song. Maalie🕊️Ex
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Happy to share Peedie Breeks with you. A song about childhood memory and our relationship with the outside world. Dream, stay safe and notice some magic in the every day. Like the bird outside your window 🕊Ex 📸
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Film maker captures an intimate studio performance of ‘Maalie’ in one single camera shot... from the street to the piano. Watch the full video below.
erlandcooper.lnk.to/Maalie-Piano
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A Nightingale Sings Outside Our Window OUT 9/7. All digital stores 🦅
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