Tim Cornwell: Björk's new state of online independence

Published on Wednesday 18 March 2009 22:58

TEN TRACKS, an intriguing internet music label launched in Scotland last October, is revelling in its first "proper famous" artist: the delicious eclectic Icelandic singer-songwriter Björk, below.

Ten Tracks sells downloads of songs, mainly by up-and-coming Scottish artists, in bundles of ten for just 1. It promises fair pay to the artists – over 50 percent of proceeds.

The Edinburgh-based website, tentracks.co.uk now features over 100 artists, promising everything from cutting-edge electronic as well as acoustic music. It claims to be "cutting out the middlemen" by simply releasing music from artists including Twilight Sad, Frightened Rabbit, Gregory & the Hawk, Ten Kens, Aberfeldy, King Biscuit Time, The Aliens and Slam.

"In this context, it is almost spooky how aptly Bjrk's track, Declare Independence, fits the times," says a press release. "Bjrk is, as you're likely aware, proper famous. But the real reason we're delighted to welcome her to the roster is because her track is an absolute killer: dark electro and a nuanced yet passionate vocal combine to impressive effect; true rabble-rousing rarely had such a sense of irony."

Gallery portraits

FOLLOWING in the footsteps of the late Queen Mother and the Prince of Wales, the City Art Centre has become the first public gallery in Scotland to buy a work by the watercolour painter Hugh Buchanan.

Buchanan's recent show, Enlightenment, at the Francis Kyle Gallery in London, received strong reviews, and to the delight of his family it was recommended over headline shows by Lucien Freud and Francis Bacon in the press.

The exhibition featured his interiors of libraries, including the Playfair Library and the Signet Library in Edinburgh, and the Imperial Library in Vienna.

Enlightenment transfers to the Old Town House on the University of Aberdeen campus this week. It includes a painting of the gothic bookcases of the Divinity Library at the city's King's College.

The picture acquired by the City Art Centre is a painting of urns on a table inside Lauriston Castle.

"This is the first public collection to acquire an example of his work in Scotland and we are delighted," says Francis Kyle. "We would like to see him in the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art."

Sealed lips

THE SIX judges deciding which museum or gallery wins the 100,000 Art Fund prize touched down in Edinburgh and Glasgow this week. Film-maker Lord Puttnam led the group examining first The Centre of New Enlightenment at Kelvingrove, aimed at engaging youngsters from deprived communities. They then moved on to Scotland: A Changing Nation at the National Museum of Scotland, which tells Scotland's national story from the 20th Century on.

"I really can't comment on what we've seen this afternoon," said Robert Crawford, outgoing Director General of the Imperial War Museum. But the judges were "particularly engaged by a remarkable film in which Scots speak to us, and visitors, about themselves".