New Voices: Eric Linklater

Taught by renowned Orkney fiddler Jennifer Wrigley, Kirkwall-born Eric Linklater recorded his debut album aged just 17. It saw him hailed by The Living Tradition as “a new young star”, equally for his talents and his range of influence, spanning material from the US, Scandinavia, Ireland and Shetland, as well as self-penned tunes and others from his native isles.

Now based in Glasgow, and a graduate of the RCS, here he stretches his compositional wings with Out In The Flow, its title alluding both to a favourite walk back home beside Scapa Flow, and the elusive artistic “flow state” from which his tunes emerge. It comprises a diverse but subtly linked series of instrumental compositions, written for strings, piano, guitar, bass and drums, variously inspired by Orkney landscapes, seascapes, people and traditions. Linklater likens the pieces to “Polaroids of my emotional mind translated into sound - straight from the heart, into the flow.”