(Vermona '14): Pre-Burns Scots Song (Session 1)

Published on Nov 10, 2018 Kris Lennox

"Right. Being an Ayrshire lad, this recording could lead to my waking up dead i.e. playing enemy music (Galloway etc). One has to be careful.

Growing up in Ayrshire = saturated with Burns. I'll get round to recording some Burns, but there's plenty of other Scots repertoire aside from the womaniser's music.

I'm assuming most people reading this won't be Ayrshire: in Ayrshire schools, from the very earliest days there are yearly Burns competitions, where his poems have to be read aloud. For the first 10 years or so it is quite the novelty, but the resentment soon sets in.

Since I'm in a good mood tonight, I'll go so far as to say even foreigners can listen to this recording if they wish (i.e. people from Edinburgh).

Hell, I'm in such a good mood I'll even allow women to listen to it.

On a serious note - all recordings, in fitting with how they would have sounded in their day, are detuned lower than A440. Of course, electricity/limited-run German synths were an issue back then, but one can't be too picky when it comes to matters of history.

I'm hoping this recording/other Scots Song work I do acts as a useful 'internet repository' of Scots Song. Playing the melodies unaccompanied is very useful for instrumentalists/vocalists etc. As such, I'm keeping relatively faithful to the original manuscripts.

Note that on a couple of tracks VCO 1 is pitch-locked i.e. reminiscent of a bagpipe drone.

The Vermona sounds great. The instrument is so direct that creating a new patch for each track doesn't take too long at all. On a synth with lots of menus etc, it is easy to spend forever honing a sound only to realise an entire evening has passed.

It is a great no-nonsense 'get to the point' synth. And, as can probably be heard from the works in this video, very wide tonal/timbral range.

Brilliantly useful in the studio as a product of its quickness to dial in a sound.

Best
Kris"