The Distant Voices project releases a new EP, ‘Looking At Colours Again’ via Vox Liminis.

It contains five songs co-written by musicians Donna Maciocia (formerly of Amplifico), Ross Clark (Fiskur), Jo Mango & Admiral Fallow’s Louis Abbott with participants in workshops in communities and prisons across Scotland during Vox Sessions in HMP Barlinnie, HMP Inverness, HMP Castle Huntly and HMYOI Polmont during 2018-19.

Across the EP is a sound based around vintage drum machines and synths, produced by Abbott – Distant Voices Artistic Lead – with Paul Savage at Chem19 studios.

Lead single, ‘Rewind’, was written by Maciocia with Sean H, and is about “how regret loops in the mind, along with the nagging yet unattainable desire to ‘Rewind, record over, rewrite the scenes’.”

The evolution of the song involved continued collaboration, from the initial songwriting, into discussions around arrangements, and on to participation in the recording process itself.

The aim behind the EP and Distant Voices’ releases is to bring these stories to a wider audience, in order to challenge conventional understandings of ‘offender rehabilitation’ and to offer a better understanding of the ways people are received when they ‘come home’ after punishment.

Vox Liminis is the arts and community organisation behind Distant Voices – a project that explores crime, punishment and reintegration through song-writing and other forms of creative expression. It does so by teaming up some of Scotland’s best songwriters with people who’ve experienced the criminal justice system. This includes people in prison, social workers, probation officers, prison officers and governors, as well as those affected by an experience of crime, or participants in communities and families who receive people coming home.

Through the project, hundreds of songs have been written, telling the stories of those involved, with the aim of learning from their experiences in a way which will help to make positive changes in the Criminal Justice System.

The ‘Looking At Colours Again’ EP is , or stream via Spotify or Apple.

More at www.distantvoices.org.uk and www.voxliminis.co.uk.