Bill Wells releases a new album, ‘The Viaduct Tuba Trio Plays The Music of Bill Wells’. via Bison Records.

The album stems from a set of compositions written for Antony Hook, Danielle Price and Mark Reynolds to perform in 2018 in the lee of the Glenfinnan Viaduct as part of the Loch Shiel Festival).

The set was then performed again again at Counterflows 2019, accompanied by the Gorbals Youth Brass Band.

Wells contributed three tunes for the performance, including ‘Fanfare For Three Tubas’, and composed the remainder after being commissioned by Glasgow’s underground/experimental festival Counterflows following the Glenfinnan Viaduct performance.

The trio subsequently performed Wells’ tunes in Glasgow with the Gorbals Youth Brass Band – an ensemble formed in 2012 in Glasgow to offer local children free instrumental tuition, who play on three of the album’s 10 tracks.

The set forming Wells’ first physical release in four years, the 10 tracks were recorded at Mogwai’s Castle of Doom studios in Glasgow by Tony Doogan, mixed by Bill at Loathsome Reels and mastered by Norman Blake of Teenage Fanclub.

Bison Records’ Abby Thomas said: “The CD is the first release from Bill for four years, and we were lucky to arrange the recording sessions when we did!”

Also included is ‘The Midges’, “a comic tribute to the entomological scourge of the Highlands” by Kenneth McKellar.

Wells’ career spans more than two decades with releases on Creeping Bent and Domino Records as well as Stephen Pastel’s Geographic imprint, and working with other Scottish indie acts including Isobel Campbell and V-Twin.

He has also made two albums with Aidan Moffat including inaugural SAY Award-winner ‘Everything’s Getting Older’, both on Chemikal Underground, as well as recording albums with Jad Fair, Maher Halal Hash Baz and Stefan Schneider of To Rococo Rot among others.

Most recently the multi-instrumentalist has worked ‘Standards Vol V’ by The National Jazz Trio of Scotland), featuring the voice of Gerard Black of Babe / Francois and the Atlas Mountains, and on the eponymous debut LP by The Sensory Illusions

The latter is Wells’ guitar-and-tuba duo with Danielle Price, who following studying at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland has played in Pure Brass Quintet, Dopey Monkey, Red Note Ensemble, The Old Fountain Jazz Orchestra, New Antonine Brass Quintet, in the Bill Wells / Aidan Moffat band, with Ashley Paul, Bella Hardy and Oxbow, and with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra and Royal Scottish National Orchestra.

She is joined in the trio by Mark Reynolds, who has played in the Munich Philharmonic, Bavarian Radio Orchestra, Bavarian State Opera and the Munich Symphony Orchestra, and performed as a soloist including performances of the Vaughan Williams Tuba Concerto with the Royal Philharmonic of Flanders and the Royal Scottish National Orchestra.

Completing the Tuba Trio, Antony Hook was Loch Shiel Festival’s Young Artist for 2018 and currently studies at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama.

‘Viaduct Tuba Trio’ tracklisting:
‘Fanfare For Three Tubas’, ‘Stud In The Muck’, ‘No More Cons’, ‘The Midges’, ‘Unhealthy Exercise’, ‘Three Layers’, ‘Hydra Mini/Jalopy’, ‘Chorale 4K’, ‘Slow Worm’, ‘Stone Throw Dream Anthem’

More at www.bisonrecords.co.uk.