Idiogram: A Scottish band’s journey from concept to debut album in the age of streaming

In an age when the billions of pounds of revenues generated from music streaming services largely benefits a handful of established artists, striking out as an unknown and unsigned act is a daunting task.

For one “post-prog” instrumental quartet from East Lothian the journey from inception to the release of a debut album has been one beset with breakups, bereavements, external obstacles and not inconsiderable financial outlay. Come March 22, the blood, sweat, tears and investment will hopefully pay off as Idiogram’s “Reunion of Broken Parts” is made available to the converted and the curious on compact disc and via digital downloading and streaming for the first time, in its entirety.

The band’s trials and tribulations encapsulate the challenges facing musicians and songwriters in the 21st century music business. And for Idiogram - Lesley Crawford (piano and keyboards), Ali Gillies (bass), Ali Kilpatrick (guitar) and Keith Kirkwood (drums) - those difficulties have been amplified by their determination to create something of quality and substance in an increasingly transient, lo-fi listening era: one dominated by Spotify streams via smart speaker or earbuds.

Idiogram are Ali Gillies (bass), Keith Kirkwood (drums), Lesley Crawford (piano, keys), Ali Kilpatrick (guitar).

The four-piece group’s distinctive blend of post-prog, rock, electronic, ambient and classical music has been teased on streaming platforms for a while now, attracting the attention of the music press and influencers, including The Scotsman’s What’s On team. A couple of single releases have garnered positive reviews and the March 22 album launch will coincide with a gig at Edinburgh venue The Caves.

Crawford, who brought the band together around the middle of 2017, sees the event as the culmination of much hard graft and dedication.

“Our process of composition and collaboration has been challenging but also profoundly satisfying,” she says. “We all have full-time jobs, which has limited the time available to focus on everything to do with the album release. Covid was poorly timed, but coming out of it provided the spur to record and release this music. There have been bereavements along the way too, and a small calamity with Summerhall, which pushed the album release forward into March this year.

“It’s fair to say that we have taken our time with this album. We’ve quite intentionally been in no rush to get things out the door - freeing ourselves from the idea of ‘hustle’ has allowed us the space to consider and explore.”

Lesley Crawford (piano, keys), Keith Kirkwood (drums), Ali Gillies (bass), Ali Kilpatrick (guitar).

With an eye, and crucially an ear, on quality, recording engineer and producer Graeme Young of Chamber Studio, also based in East Lothian, was enlisted on production duties. Given the music’s complexity, dynamics and intensity, the band insist that the time, effort and expense taken to hone the end product has been worthwhile.

About £5,000 was invested in the recording process, from tracking to mastering, and around the same sum again spent on promotion and generally getting the album ready for release. Following a chance meeting at a co-working space last summer, James Coutts, who runs Opening Lines Media, has been on board to help raise awareness for the band.

“This is no small amount overall for an unsigned band,” stresses Crawford. “Yet, in the grand scheme of things, it is still a very small budget to work with. We could have easily spent another £5k on items that we’ve elected not to do, never mind the possibilities we didn’t even entertain.

“Given that all of this still falls into the ‘hobby’ category of our lives, the most obvious sacrifices have been time away from family and friends, time away from other interests, and no small amount of sanity lost as we grapple with social media and promotion.”

The lion’s share of 2024's total of £2.39 billion in recorded music sales came from streaming subscriptions.

The band started recording the album in April 2022 before finishing it later that summer. The contents were then given the magic touch by mastering engineer Katie Tavini in 2023 before a release date and launch was planned for last year. That launch venue - Edinburgh’s eclectic Summerhall - then became the subject of closure speculation amid a widely-reported legal tangle, since resolved, but leading to Idiogram postponing their milestone moment.

“We decided to see the delay as an opportunity rather than a road block,” says a sanguine Crawford. “We’ve released an extra couple of tracks which has really helped to build some momentum. Doing this has also given us the extra time and space to make sure our live show is a representation of us as a band that we all feel good about.”

It comes as 2024 was declared “music’s comeback year” after recorded music sales, encompassing subscription streaming, physical music and download, topped £2.39 billion, up 7.4 per cent year on year. That exceeded the market’s previous peak of just over £2.22bn, achieved in 2001. Inevitably, the lion’s share of the 2024 total came from streaming, with almost £2.02bn forked out on subscriptions, up from £1.87bn a year earlier, according to the stats from the UK’s Entertainment Retailers’ Association (ERA).

Annual physical music revenues were up 6.2 per cent last year - totalling £330.1 million - as the vinyl revival continued spinning and interest in its seemingly moribund younger cousin, the CD, picked up, no doubt aided by some eye-watering hikes in vinyl prices in recent times.

Despite the time and expense it entails, Idiogram’s album producer Young argues that going down the physical format and higher-resolution route can prove rewarding for the creator and listener alike.

“Sadly, the bar has been set so low over the past years, that corners are being cut everywhere and consequently, the art suffers,” he observes. “Thankfully, in this case, the band set out to make something of quality, which I think they have achieved, and I’m very glad to have been part of that process. I know that real music lovers will happily invest in the resulting product.”

- You can listen to Idiogram’s initial single releases here