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DYED-in-the-wool folkies turning up at Celtic Connections on Sunday and expecting Shetland fiddle pyrotechnics from Chris Stout's contribution to the festival's "New Voices" series may be in for a shock. For Stout, frontliner with Fiddlers' Bid and other traditionally orientated bands, can boast more than one string to his bow . For his Celtic Connections commission he has come up with a very contemporary electro-acoustic composition for vocals, piano, harp and percussion.
The Stout fiddle won't be heard; instead the 24-year-old Shetlander will be sitting at the sound-mixing console at the back of the hall. He will not be juggling two hats at once, although as a musician he is equally at home in both a full-tilt Shetland fiddle session and the less predictable sounds of the electronic music studio. "It's very difficult to combine straight traditional music with this kind of composition," he says....