A quietly fantastic debut album

Published on Thursday 20 March 2008 19:31

SHE has spent the past few years grafting on Edinburgh's pub and coffee house circuit, but if the reception for her debut album Butterflies and Broken Glass, is anything to go by, Kim Edgar is going to find herself much in demand – not just as a writer and singer of catchy, keenly observed musical snapshots of life, but also as an arranger of no little ability.

The album, released on her own Quietly Fantastic Music label and officially launched at a concert at The Lot tomorrow night as part of Edinburgh's Ceilidh Culture festival, has already received enthusiastic critical acclaim and airplay. Made with the help of a Scottish Arts Council grant, it is, she says, the result of "a fortunate series of events", not least of which has been her involvement in the Burnsong project to nurture new songwriting talent. Out of several hundred aspirants, she was one of 17 who in 2006 shared a week immured in a "Song House", on the shores of the Solway Firth, alongside established exponents such as ex-Delgado Emma Pollock, the Squeeze's Chris Difford and Anglo-Asian popster Sushill K Dade.

Under the auspices of Burnsong, led by Dumfries and Galloway Arts Association with funding from the Scottish Executive, her spell in the "Song House" also introduced her to Karine Polwart, who provides background vocals on the album, while Polwart's husband, drummer Mattie Foulds, produced it. "I only came across Karine through Burnsong," says Edgar, "and I was really blown away by what she was doing. She's maybe a bit more folky-folky and what I'm doing is maybe more poppy-folky, but she's somebody I really look up to."

Edgar, who is 29, describes the knock-on sequence of events as "a dream scenario, in terms of getting to work with Karine, then meeting Mattie, and also him giving me the freedom to go with my ideas for arrangements." She, in turn, provided a couple of piano settings on Polwart's recent album of traditional songs, The Fairest Floo'er.

Her own, delicately voiced songs maintain a certain tension between the fragile and the celebratory. The album's opener, Red, for instance, shifts from bleakness into pop-catchy optimism, while she really cuts loose in the simmering indignation of Scissors, Paper, Stone, in which you can virtually hear the smashing of crockery as Greg Lawson's gypsy violin blazes. Another strong number is House on the Hill, a collaboration with Emma Pollock, driven along dramatically by Edgar's piano – her first instrument, although she also uses guitar. Some subtle but inspired use of brass provides a dark pulse in a couple of numbers. "I came through school orchestras and wind bands and I always loved brass, even though I can't play it. It was funny, when Mattie and I were working on songs for the album, we said separately what we thought we should do with them, and found we were both spot on in terms of brass."

While demonstratively grateful to the Burnsong hothouse, she also pays tribute to the lad from Kyle himself – her album includes her own spare piano setting of Burns's The Bonnie Lad. "It's the freshness of his stuff… the message in a lot of his poetry and songs is as relevant now as it always was. I suppose it's that transcendence thing – I hope I'm writing stories that are real and personal, but say something more about us all. And Burns does that awfully well."

&#149 Kim Edgar and friends launch Butterflies and Broken Wings at The Lot, Edinburgh, tomorrow night. For further details, visit www.kim edgar.com