Wild Gods fuses Hebridean folk traditions with post-rock
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- The Glorious Abysmal, Wild Gods' debut album released 24 July, draws on Hebridean waulking songs — the communal women's work chants traditionally sung while beating and softening tweed before mechanisation.
- Jamie Livingstone, the Argyll-based musician behind Wild Gods and a regular collaborator with electronic producer Barry Can't Swim, built the eight-track album around Susannah Stark's Gaelic vocals, Bad Seeds-style guitars, folk fiddle, and Godspeed You! Black Emperor-style basslines.
- Track 'Ortha' is named after a Celtic incantation and reflects Livingstone's transformative ayahuasca experience; 10-minute 'Carlene's Pin' marries Stark's Gaelic vocals to post-rock clanging, while 'Rest and Be Thankful' — named after both a Scottish reel and the A83 lovers' viewpoint — builds from tender ballad into eruptive folk-dance strut.
- The project stems from Livingstone's work with Vox Liminis, a Glasgow arts organisation that supports people with criminal justice system experience through creative projects — giving the archival-revival effort a stated regenerative, social-purpose dimension beyond music.
- The review calls the album 'mercurial' music with 'regenerative power,' highlighting closing track 'Aye Right', which layers fingerpicked guitar with samples of congregational psalm singing sliding in and out like a fever dream, and the 'exquisite fiddling' of 'Hilma of Klint', named after the Swedish mystic painter.
Why it matters: By linking centuries-old Hebridean women's waulking traditions to Livingstone's existing Vox Liminis criminal-justice arts work, Wild Gods frames archival folk revival as a vehicle for healing, not just preservation — and the review credits the eight tracks with 'regenerative power' that bridges communal Gaelic practice to contemporary experimental sonics.
