Francis Macdonald releases another classical album, ‘Hamilton Mausoleum Suite’.

The album receives its launch / premier at the famous Lanarkshire landmark, on February 19, with the help of soloists from the Scottish Festival Orchestra, who also feature on the album, to an audience of just 50.

The long-player is available via TR7/Shoeshine Records (the latter imprint his own label).

The chamber music collection was inspired by childhood memories of the historic Hamilton Mausoleum, and was recorded in the building, which stands on the edge of Strathclyde Park in Lanarkshire. The Mausoleum is famed as having one of the longest echoes of any man-made building in the world and was constructed in the 1850s for Alexander the 10th Duke of Hamilton. The duke’s remains were initially interred in an Egyptian sarcophagus on a plinth within the building, but the 37-metre tall structure now stands empty.

A member of BMX Bandits for many years, Macdonald set up Glasgow indie label Shoeshine Records in 1996 and country/folk label Spit & Polish in 2000; with, alongside his own material, the likes of The Beauty Shop and Julie Fowlis plus acclaimed country artist and ballboy collaborator Laura Cantrell releasing material on the imprints.

When not donning his artist management hat – he has Camera Obscura, Attic Lights and The Vaselines on his books – Macdonald’s composition career has recently started to dominate his career, although he is still the drummer with Teenage Fanclub, having recently toured across the world to promote the band’s most recent album ‘Here’.

In 2013, he was nominated for a BAFTA Scotland New Talent Award for his soundtrack to short film ‘The Lost Purse’, though his debut classical album proper, ‘Music for String Quartet, Piano and Celeste’ was released in 2015. He then contributed to the #1 compilation ‘The Lost Songs of St Kilda’ which was performed by the Scottish Festival Orchestra.

Curiously, although his music have appeared in various films and TV projects, the best-known (so far) may be Looper’s ‘Mondo ‘77’’ track which featured on the soundtrack to Tom Cruise film ‘Vanilla Sky’, as well as on a Xerox photocopier advert.

His most recent ‘pop’ (ish) release was a collaboration with London-based artist Harry Pye for a collection of ‘art pop’ songs and spoken word pieces for the album ‘Bonjour’.

More at www.FrancisMacdonald.com