"I LIKE IT HOW IT'S ALWAYS BEEN"

FEAT: PICTISH TRAIL, GRASSCOURT, MOLLY LINEN, THE POSTMAP CLUB, FELL, STRANGE INVITATION, JCV-D + MORE

We look back on our Howlin’ Fling weekender, with a photo gallery, by Stephanie Gibson & Colin Greig … and a thank-you blog from Pictish Trail.

Howlin’ Fling! is a live music event, hosted by Pictish Trail and his record label Lost Map. It takes place in and around the Ceilidh Hall on the Hebridean Isle of Eigg, in Scotland.

The next one is happening over the weekend of Friday 31st May & Saturday 1st June 2019.

As Lost Map Records this summer celebrates five years since it was established, so too begins an exciting new chapter with the launch of V I S I T ▲ T I O N S – a series of very special limited-edition releases, written and recorded in residency in a cabin on the label’s home the isle of Eigg, Scotland. Set up with support from Creative Scotland, the residency programme presents a unique opportunity for exciting label roster acts and guest artists to break away from the connectivity saturated modern world, go off-grid, embrace the inspiring scenery and self-sustaining community spirit of a truly special Hebridean island, and focus solely on one project for a concentrated period.

Although often aided and abetted live and on record by a seven-piece band, Randolph’s Leap is primarily the work of Nairn born-and-raised singer, songwriter and home-recording boffin extraordinaire Adam Ross.  Written and performed almost entirely by Adam solo, Worryingly Okay was released on May 25th 2018, and represents Randolph’s Leap’s third full-length album proper to date.

Click this way for a lovingly assembled TRACK-BY-TRACK account of it's ten songs, composed by the main man himself …

The Corner Of A Sphere, the transportive new album from Alabaster DePlume, is OUT NOW on Lost Map Records, available on limited edition LP (from the Lost Map webshop, BandCamp, and select indie shops) and also flowing through all digital streamy places.

It's an album that truly defies categorisation, and is best imbibed in full, on eternal rotation, whilst navigating a magic carpet ride through the stratosphere. 

YES WE JAN - the remix album to BAS JAN’s Yes I Jan - is now available to listen to on all streaming services.  Previously, this remix album had only been made available as an infinite mega-mix, on a limited edition cassette, exclusively with advance copies of the Yes I Jan LP.  BUT NOW you can ALL listen to your heart's content, in the following digital locations …

Unless you're on death row, TODAY is the first day of the rest of your life.  Everything starts TODAY my friends. That's because TODAY  (well, the day i'm writing this) happens to be Friday 6th April, which - in addition to being the first day of the new tax year (#excitement) - is the first day you can listen to the brand new dreamy LP The Year Dot by our non-identical London quintuplets, Firestations.

Johannesburg-based English singer-songwriter Victoria Hume released her stunning EP,  Closing on Lost Map Records, back in 2016 - seven sparse, wintry songs of fluttering piano and strings, bright guitars and beautifully naturalistic vocals. Closing arrived at Lost Map's door after it was passed to Pictish Trail by his musical accomplice, and partner-in-spandex Adem of Silver Columns. Adem had previously worked with Victoria on her 2013 project Delirium, a cycle of songs themed around the complex hallucinations patients have been known to experience during hospital-based intensive care (outside of music, Victoria works as an arts manager in health and medicine and as a researcher).

The first Delirium project had been based on conversations with patients in the UK, and now Victoria has created a follow up album, Delirium Part II, with patients in South Africa. Here she is with more information about the project ...

Lost Map are excited to support Fire Records in a deluxe double-vinyl reissue of Pictish Trail's critically-acclaimed third album Future Echoes, available in select stores from Record Store Day, April 21.

To celebrate the release, Pictish Trail will be performing a rare solo show at the Amersham Arms in London for Record Store Day, ahead of a summer of festivals, including Green Man, Folk Forest, Deer Shed and Skye Live.

Look at us, in that photo.  JUST LOOK AT US.  So fresh faced.  That was our "primary 1 school photo", taken at Green Man Festival in 2013, where Lost Map was officially born on the 16th August.  What a weekend that was! It’s 2018, now… and our 5th birthday is this summer - what better way to spend it, than by returning to the Brecon Beacons?

YES.  Green Man have invited Lost Map to celebrate our 5th birthday!   Pictish Trail, BAS JAN, Ed Dowie will all be representing Lost Map at this year’s bash, with separate sets, alongside some Lost Map DJs … and, sweet jebus, LM graduate Seamus Fogarty is gonna be performing over the weekend too.  It’s going to be emotional, folks.

Bas Jan's debut album Yes I Jan is now OFFICIALLY released into the world.  Having been made available digitally over the past few weeks, the gorgeous retina-burning orange sleeve LP is now a real life physical product that you can hold in your hands, and even eat your dinner off ... 

Hey internet fans.  I’m sure you’ll agree, there’s nothing better than a ‘semi-regular feature’.   You know what i’m talking about, right?   A series of online posts, strapped with a BIG TITLE and good intentions, that crops up from time to time without warning or reason, often appearing in a big CLUMP, before the author forgets it exists, or gets bored, and the feature disappears into the nether regions of the world’s wide web.

Well … we, at Lost Map, pride ourselves on being the masters of the ‘semi-regular feature’.  So, without further ado, here’s a new semi-regular feature on the Lost Map website entitled TRACK-BY-TRACK, in which we ask the artists to give a brief description of an album they have released with us.  The first in this irregular series is by ... MONOGANON.

Lost Map are excited to welcome latest signings BAS JAN, the London experimental post-punk trio built around the remarkable and distinctive voice and songs of multi-instrumentalist and composer Serafina Steer. A brilliant, bonkers, shape-shifting song about the weird tedium of a text message spat (“Drop it? Why don’t you drop it!”), 'Argument' – available to stream and share now – is the first single to be revealed from BAS JAN's forthcoming debut album Yes I Jan, due early 2018.

Lost Map are pleased to announce that our spiritual captain, Pictish Trail, has signed to Fire Records.  As you can see from the photo above, he's so overwhelmed with excitement that he is expelling a viscous pink liquid.  This doesn't mean he's abandoning Lost Map, but rather tying our DIY dinghy to a much sturdier vessel.

To celebrate, our Picty is heading out on a never ending tour.   First up there's a batch of solo dates, supporting KT Tunstall around Europe, followed by some full band appearances at events in Paisley, Aberfeldy, Stirling and Edinburgh, mixed in with some stripped-back three-piece shows, on his headline UK tour Winter Rewind Acid Reflux.

Our second Strange Invitation event is taking place at Paisley Arts Centre on Sunday 22nd October in the year of our Bart 2017.   It's part of a series of acts taking place in Paisley throughout October, as part of their annual Spree Festival.   We're really chuffed that they've asked Lost Map to be involved, and we've put together a suitably top bill for the occasion.

Strange Invitation is an irregular Lost Map showcase, with various acts from the roster, alongside special guests.   The doors will open from 5pm, and there'll be live music until 10.30pm - all for the cost of £14 (£12 concessions).  You can purchase tickets here: http://lostmap.com/tickets/strange-invitation 

Click READ MORE for info on the line-up ... 

After a fervently busy summer which included triumphant appearance at festivals including Field Day, Glastonbury, Green Man and Lost Map’s Howlin’ Fling!, and was capped with a shortlisting for the Scottish Album of the Year Award by popular vote, Isle of Eigg-based Scottish DIY electronic folk-tinged croft pop sonic hermit and Lost Map Records founder and director Pictish Trail looks ahead to the cold season with the Winter Rewind Acid Reflux Tour.