Audio-naturalist Martyn Stewart, Musician ONR to release Imperfect Cadence, Album of the Sounds of Scotland, out late November

Album from Biophonica project dedicated to creative collaborations for conservation weaves nature sounds with original music compositions + vocals

In late November, the British audio-naturalist Martyn Stewart and the Scottish producer and musician ONR will release Imperfect Cadence. A collaborative album that weaves Martyn’s field recordings from Scotland’s natural acoustic soundscape with ONR’s original compositions, Imperfect Cadence’s eight songs provide a sensory journey through Scotland's wild and untamed beauty and, through the emotional capabilities of music, plead the case for conservation of Scotland (and the world’s) natural integrity, flora, and fauna. The album is credited to ONR and Biophonica, Martyn’s project dedicated to creative collaborations for conservation, and will be released on Seeker Music’s record label, Music is Fun.

The album was conceived as a love letter to Scotland from both of its creators. Called the “The David Attenborough of Sound” by National Geographic, Martyn has one of the largest collections of natural sounds in the world, having recorded more than 90,000 different sounds from 1975 through today in more than 55 different countries, for a total of over 60,000 hours of natural sounds. Today, more than 75% of the landscapes and soundscapes that he’s recorded have vanished, been silenced or suffered significant degradation. Born in Birmingham and based in Florida, when Martyn found out later in life that his father was Scottish, he formed a deep bond with the country and its natural landscape. After receiving a terminal cancer diagnosis in 2019, he set out to turn his Scottish recordings into an album that would embody the country’s singular auditory identity. Possibly Martyn’s last project, Imperfect Cadence is an extension of Martyn’s life work - to encourage understanding of the dire need to preserve our ecosystems.

Born Robert Shields, ONR hails from Dumfriesshire in South Scotland. A singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and producer, one of his big breaks came when he collaborated with guitarist and producer Nile Rodgers, who became a fan after he overheard him recording at Abbey Road Studios. Since then, ONR has toured with acts such as Bastille and Lewis Capaldi, and earned major support from the BBC. A major advocate for Scottish music and culture, as well as the environment, when he found out about Martyn’s ambitions for Imperfect Cadence, he knew he needed to join forces to help harness his country’s sounds into something that would connect deeply with the widest swath of people.

To that end, Imperfect Cadence is the rare “nature album” that’s conventionally listenable front to back, combining an array of diverse and evocative organic sounds with ONR’s sung vocals and Moby-esque samples, piano-based symphonies, drum and bass, and even some early-Radiohead reminiscent indie rock sensibilities. Meant to evoke the enchanting, ethereal nature of Scotland, the songs create a transportative experience that brings listeners everywhere from the rugged Highlands’ steep cliffs and rocky outcrops, with golden eagles and buzzards soaring over, to the Lowlands’ open plains, and the rhythmic crashes of the coastal regions complete with the distant howls of red deer blending with the rustling of leaves in the breeze.

Martyn said “I have spent my lifetime trying to record the natural world one sound at a time, aiming to give a voice to what, for a long time, has felt voiceless. Sound can also echo a disappearing world, a sonic landscape undergoing an extinction event of its own – one that is, with painful irony, happening silently. Robert and I wanted to write a love letter to Scotland and this is the result.”

ONR said “I don’t believe that anyone involved in this project is naive enough to believe that changing attitudes, influencing governmental policy or progressing any kind of environmental evolution is a simple undertaking. What I do know for absolute certain, is that if anything can, then music can. Music's influence remains at the very fundamentals of what it is to be human; not just human, in fact, but to be alive and sentient and communicative. This project has taught me that. Songs are ever-present. Be those the songs of the capercaillies of the Cairngorms, the curlews of the Solway Firth… or the eight songs that make up this body of work, Imperfect Cadence.”