The sun is finally out; summer must be here, no? Well let’s make the most of it just in case.

Mister Harvey has been applying grease to his elbows and returning to work in the garden, and now finds himself a concrete slab and a course of bricks closer to a nice wee step to the upper level of the patio. Bricklaying is harder than it looks.

In other news, Modern Studies have been finalising artwork for their LP Swell to Great, which will be released in September on Song, by Toad Records. They’ve had a couple of commissions for Earth recordings too – one an instrumental for a tribute to Burt Yanch’s Avocet album – Avocet Revisited (mixed and submitted last month), and a second for a cover album of songs by the same artist. Both should be out in the not too distant future.

He’s also been working on tracks for The Son(s), who recorded three tracks at Pumpkinfield in April – he’ll be noodling about with some string arrangements for these over the next week or two.
Travels with his cello have taken him to Iona, Crinan and Skye Live with King Creosote (including a nail-biting drive across the unexpectedly snowy wastes of Mull), and to Edinburhg’s Wide Days, Shuffledown (Larbert’s answer to Glastonbury) and Aberdeen’s Advocates Library with Best Girl Athlete.

there was also the small matter of a Pumpkinseed performance in the form of an 8-piece string section accompanying A New International at St. Luke’s in Glasgow, playing the lovely string arrangements of Mister Colin Elliot in the company of a member or two of the Up North Session Orchestra.