Light from the North

“Scotland is a tiny country with half the population of London,” begins O’Rourke, “but it really offers so much in the way of creative thinking, music, literature and the arts in general. Scots are internationalists, and in the last 20, 30 years, Scotland has become this beautifully diverse country as well, so Scotland Unwrapped is a celebration of all of this.”

O’Rourke is talking about Kings Place’s year-long programme of Scottish music and spoken word in London, a celebration of the country’s rich, traditional and diverse contemporary arts scene. O’Rourke, a founding member of Lau, is one of the guest curators, taking a lead in two special events. On December 6 he joins forces with classical guitarist Sean Shibe to unite the worlds of classical and folk music. Before that though, on September 20, he will perform with a five-strong group of musicians under the title Nur. Nur aim to celebrate ‘the grit, calibre and charisma of Edinburgh’s grassroots music-making,’ a city well-known for its lively community-based music tradition.

“There’s just a lot of support from that level,” O’Rourke enthuses, “house concerts, people giving up spaces for rehearsal, giving you opportunity to do warm-up concerts before tours and people spotting gaps in your schedule and offering to put on a house concert for you. It feels really great. The audience are right there, you mingle with them before, and afterwards you have a drink with them. It just all feels very warm and supportive.”

Consequently, Nur, from the Arabic for light, came as a result of O’Rourke’s collaboration with Bashir Saade. “The first time I ever heard Bashir play was in a tiny flat in Leith. There was 18 of us squeezed into this flat to listen to this amazing Arabic music and Lebanese flute.”

The Beirut-born but now Glasgow-based Bashir has proved a palpable influence on O’Rourke’s playing and fascination with Arabic music, culminating in the formation of the Nur quintet (a collective also featuring Brìghde Chaimbeul, Graeme Stephen and Rachel Sermanni): “We’re all leaning more into the Arabic feel, leaning into scales and ancient Egyptian and Lebanese melodies. The most exciting thing is everyone playing with this new sense of scale and tonality.” 

O’Rourke can’t wait for the shows. “I must have played Kings Place 20 times over the years and I’ve good, creative connections with the people [there]… It was an honour to be asked to be part of this. It’s a joyous place to play.”

Aidan O’Rourke plays Kings Place, London on September 20 and December 6 as part of Scotland Unwrapped. Tickets and more info here