All the best parties are the ones you don’t get to hear about. Though that may be about to change with the 10th anniversary of Lost Map Records; the label based on the Hebridean Isle of Eigg and famed – on the quiet – for its annual get-togethers of musicians and fans alike.
To mark the occasion the label’s founder and director Johnny Lynch AKA Pictish Trail has formed the ultimate Lost Map party band featuring a multitude of players to have released on the label over the last decade.
And it’s quite the mix, drawing members of the oh-so-quiet eagleowl and introspective guitar janglers Tuff Love who contribute to a sound also encompassing PictishTrail’s own mash-up of folk and electro and the masterful pop stylings of Kid Canaveral.
L.T. Leif and Savage Mansion also help form Weird Wave, with the collective’s self-titled debut album written and recorded from scratch in the space of a week at the Glebe Barn hostel on a windswept late winter hillside on the island.
The project was born of “the existential crisis that comes with the passing of any decade,” says Lynch, “and wanting to commemorate it in a way that felt special”.
The idea of bringing artists to write and record on Eigg, where former Fife resident Lynch lives with his family, was already well-developed through Lost Map’s long-running VISITATIONS residency programme, which has seen a variety of guests travel to the island over the last five years to make music for special release on the label, including members of British Sea Power, Grandaddy and Sacred Paws.
So finding musicians to be part of the collective was pretty straightforward. “Without wanting to sound overly earnest,” says Lynch, “the core of the project is the spirit of friendship.
“Lost Map isn’t some hobby label, it is my full-time job, occupying my every waking thought – but it’s also completely reliant on the support of my friends. I wanted this new group to reflect that sense of togetherness. Every person I approached I consider to be a good pal, and they all said yes straight away.”
And after the party’s over, who knows? “I can’t resist the temptation of splitting chapters of my life into periods of 10 years,” Lynch says, “and this feels like the start of a new one.”
‘Lost Map presents Weird Wave’ is out now. The alomst-sold-out Lost Map Christmas Humbug festive all-dayer takes place at the Traverse Theatre in Edinburgh on Saturday 14th December.
This article originally appeared in the Sunderland Echo.
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