Under the Radar: Swiss Portrait

When lockdown stopped conceptual artist Michael Kay Terrance from doing his day job, which involves “blowing stuff up,” he took to writing music at home in Penicuik to relieve the boredom. Sharing the tracks online, he soon found an enthusiastic audience around the world for his brand of dreampop which is likely to appeal to fans of New Order and the Cocteau Twins.

His cassette release of his debut EP, the aptly-named Cassette, sold out within a day and is approaching half a million streams on Spotify. Subsequent tracks have been buoyed by a Canadian clothing brand using Swiss Portrait’s music as soundbeds for their outdoor videos, as well as proving popular with users of the online platform Twitch.

His most recent single, Paralysed, is accompanied by a clip shot on an old VHS camcorder and will appear on the Safe House EP, due out on 25 April. Performing live with a four piece band, Swiss Portrait will be appearing at King Tut’s in Glasgow on 22 March and exactly a month later at Sneaky Pete’s in Edinburgh. A booking for Kelburn Garden Party is already confirmed at the beginning of July and international dates are likely to follow within the year. See https://www.facebook.com/SwissPortrait/

Olaf Furniss and Derick Mackinnon run music industry seminar and social night Born To Be Wide, www.borntobewide.co.uk

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