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Further proof of Celtic Connections' status as the broadest of churches came with this first Sunday afternoon outing. The New Voices series, where established talents are given free-rein commissions, has proved a mixed bag over the past few years. But Shetland fiddler and contemporary music composer Chris Stout's electro-acoustic piece is easily the most radical to date, so radical in fact that it might yet earn a hearing during Celtic Connections' sister festival, the cca's Free Radiccals.
To taped sounds variously suggesting feet grinding gravel, rolls of gaffer tape unravelling and - had the room been dark rather than just severly dimmed - perhaps more gory goings on, vocalist Alyth MacCormack, pianist Andy Thorburn, harpist Catriona MacKay, and Iain Copeland, on snare drum, added scored commentaries.
The theory was fine and the piece...