There’s something about walking, at least there is for me anyway. Not just the movement but the way it opens space for listening, opens up my mind. I wish my knees would hold up so I could run more, but walking is a very close second. With both, there’s nothing much else that can get in your way… For Glasgow-based artist Susannah Stark, the walk from the city to Carbeth becomes a meditation on paying attention, on taking your time with things, on letting roots guide the way.
In Stark’s work, sensitivity is a form of attentiveness, a willingness to be present with the human voice, with the spaces between sounds, with what emerges when you slow down enough to notice what’s around you. Remember when we all used to do that? Her approach to creating music mirrors the patient rhythm of plant growth – something we like around these parts – not forced or rushed, but allowed to unfold at its own pace.
“Pay attention to the roots!” Stark says. It’s a gardener’s wisdom that applies equally to music-making. Sometimes the most beautiful things emerge when we’re open to what’s already there, quietly, peacefully waiting beneath the surface.
For this mix, Stark draws on her love of vocal harmony and polyphony, choral music and modular synthesis - the human voice and the electronic landscape working together like walking and listening, movement and stillness, roots and growth.
Her amazing “Minor Gestures” album on the consistently excellent Nightschool Records explores these same territories: softness, rhythm, encounters between beings, and the different dimensions of speech and sound.
The walk to Carbeth is a ritual many Glaswegians know, a movement out from the city’s grey stone into something wilder, more open. This mixtape captures that journey as Stark experiences it: when you’re happiest taking your time with things, when you’re sensitive to what’s around you, when the flowering plant you didn’t expect becomes the most meaningful bloom in your garden.
Get your headphones on, get your hands dirty with the earth, and let this mix guide you out of the city and into growth…
Who are you?
Somebody sensitive
Why are you here?
To create and share and become aligned with community
When are you happiest?
When taking my time with things
How do you approach creating music that mirrors the slow, steady rhythm of plant growth?
Paying attention
What did you grow in your garden this year?
I tried to grow coriander, sunflowers, and chamomile last year, but the only thing that came up was a flowering plant from the previous gardener.
Got any growing tips?
Pay attention to the roots!
How do you feel when you see the first sprouts emerge when planting a seed?
Happy
Congrats, you’ve won the plant lottery! You can choose anything you want. What is it?
A giant tree being.
What instruments or sounds do you evoke the feeling of nature and growth most effectively?
The human voice and modular synths
If you were a plant, what would you be and why?
Wild rose, because it smells good and grows by the sea
What is your favourite part of the planting process?
Getting hands dirty
Are there specific genres or styles of music that you feel naturally complement the act of planting seeds?
Usually listen to vocal harmony & polyphony, choral music
Mion-phuingean ‘Minor Gestures’: Susannah Stark & Band is out now on Night School.
Catch Susannah live this year. Full details here: susannahstarkmusic.com/
Tracklisting
Ailbhe Nic Oireachtaigh – finally i divided myself into three
RÓIS – a woman goes swimming in a lake
Ailie Ormston – Engine Mod
Evie Waddell – Bogaidh
Drew McDowall – Each Surface of Night
Morvyn Menzies – Crodh Chailein
James Graham – O ’s toil’s gur ro-thoil leam
Sholto – Solo Organ
Eithne Ni Uallachain – Babóg na Bealtaine
Cindytalk – Dream Ritual
Ishbel MacAskill – Eilean Fraoich
Semay Wu – A Long Road
Curlew – Air
Susannah Stark & Band – Dithis Phrìosanach
Harry Gorski-Brown – Buain na choirce
An Choirm Cheoil san Áras Béal Áthan Ghaorthaidh
The Poozies – Dheanainn Sugradh
