Matt Carmichael - Marram

There’s something about the scenes outside of the capital cities that allows an additional spark of individualism and creativity to emerge. Perhaps there's a reduced expectation or peer pressure, that consequently drives and allows space for a greater innovation, creativity and experimentation, built with more individuality.

For the UK, Cardiff, Bristol, Manchester and Leeds are a few such scenes but recently Glasgow has been in the limelight and become a powerhouse of creativity and culture. One of the major new voices in that burgeoning scene is Matt Carmichael - a saxophonist and composer with an individual sound, who brings the focus of continuous melodic improvisation of Folk music to a Jazz landscape.

Marram takes its influence from the drama, moods and expansiveness of the coastal imagery of Scotland. But rather than the music being inspired by the landscapes, it's more the other way round, where the image of the sea encapsulates the openness and emotiveness Matt is trying to communicate in his music. The album also talks about escapism, of flow and the push and pull or drama that the sea evokes. For Matt, his music “wants to have a transportive element…the sea can be calm, but can also be tempestuous, a space where lots of different moods, emotions and energies can be conveyed, lots of different elements of nature found”.

Matt Carmichael - Tenor Saxophone
Charlie Stewart - Fiddle
Fergus McCreadie - Piano
Ali Watson - Double Bass
Tom Potter - Drums