Edwyn Collins GABI GARBUTT & THE ILLUMINATIONS

Edwyn Collins released his 9th solo album Badbea, which is released on his own label, AED. Having released his last album, Understated in March 2013, Badbea is his first release since moving both home and studio to Helmsdale on the North East coast of Scotland in 2014.

Building a new studio from scratch, the impressive Clashnarrow Studios which sits on the hills overlooking Helmsdale, Collins completed work on Badbea with co-producer Sean Read (Dexys, The Rockingbirds) and long-term musical cohorts Carwyn Ellis (Colorama) & James Walbourne (The Pretenders / The Rails).

In part inspired by his return to the village where his grandfather lived, and somewhere Edwyn spent time over the years, the album title itself, and title track, are taken from and inspired by Badbea (pronounced badbay), a dramatically located abandoned village on a cliff top five miles north of Helmsdale with a history defined by the Highland Clearances of the 18th and 19th centuries.

Elsewhere on the album there are poignant moments of reflection, northern soul ‘stompers’ in the classic Edwyn Collins tradition, tracks remembering past times with Orange Juice and lyrics inspired by the discovery of over 30 old pre-illness lyric books unearthed while ‘de-cluttering’ before the move back to Scotland.

His fourth long-player completed since 2005 when he suffered two strokes (it follows Home Again 2007, Losing Sleep 2010 & Understated 2013), Badbea is an eloquent and contemplative document of his remarkable and on-going rehabilitation.

“It’s all about looking forward, I guess,” Edwyn reflects. “I’m happy. Content with life.”

The last few years have also seen Edwyn score a couple of films – the much acclaimed ‘biographical’ The Possibilities Are Endless in 2014 with Carwyn Ellis and Seb Lewsley and the forthcoming Sometimes. Always. Never with Sean Read which stars Bill Nighy and Sam Riley and is the directorial debut of Carl Hunter, who makes and teaches film in Liverpool and is a long-standing member of The Farm.

He has also been kept busy with various projects at Clashnarrow Studios, recent visitors have included Teenage Fanclub, Hooton Tennis Club, Tracyanne and Danny, Meggie Brown (produced by Alex Kapranos), Shopping and David Gray and in conjunction with guitar pedal company Colorsound, Edwyn has helped develop a fuzz pedal called ‘The Bum Fuzz’.