Kate Young has just released Milk and Dew, taken from her upcoming debut solo album Umbelliferae

A sonically entrancing live act, Scottish composer and songwriter Kate Young encompasses folk, world and classical elements. Milk and Dew is the gorgeous third single lifted from Umbelliferæ, her long-awaited debut album. Blooming with botanical inspiration and musical innovation, the record is largely inspired by the world of plantlore and old medicinal uses of wildflowers from the British Isles. Having taken a keen interest in the subject in recent years, Kate has weaved the information into her songs and compositions as a means to perpetuate and empower traditions at high risk of being lost. Musically, the release draws upon world music traditions, chamber and indie/pop influences in this song-lead string quintet collection.

“This closing piece again steps away from the literal theme of the album, is more about reflecting about what it is to live in peace on this planet. I had originally written the words some years ago after learning that there were many people migrating from one country to others, and so I wrote this as a kind of prayer to anyone who finds themselves at a loss in terms of where to live and feel settled – something I believe we all deserve. And in communion with all that the Earth gives us to be nourished and supported. I see this song through the eyes of a bird looking down over the landscape, and conjures something of an ‘overview effect’ for me.”

“Blimey…amazing stuff”  – Brian Eno

Stream and download Milk and Dew here

Growing up immersed within a Folk music background in Edinburgh, Kate has emerged as one Scotland’s most innovative composers and musicians. She is driven by the exploration of new sounds found in traditional music around the globe, which feed into her compositional world. As a musician, Kate combines voice with fiddle-playing techniques to conjure intriguing soundscapes as she navigates her way across musical genres.

Her own band (previously known as Kate in the Kettle) is focussed on her combining of composition for string quintet and song. Over the last five years she has developed her interests in British plant lore and folktales, learning directly from books and then weaving information into her songs and compositions as a means to perpetuate and empower traditions at high risk of being lost.

In 2016 she completed a significant commission for Celtic Connections’s New Voices and wrote a suite of pieces around the theme of the natural world. Her response – a complete repertoire of songs inspired by British medicinal plants, set to string quintet, with harp, double bass and percussion – was met with wide acclaim.

A recipient of the prestigious Paul Hamlyn Award for Composers 2018, Kate has toured globally with bands such as Moulettes, Eliza Carthy, Hardy, Farrell & Young, Kathryn Tickell & The Darkening and Hannah James’s JigDoll Ensemble. In 2015-16 she collaborated with ten folk musicians from Scotland and England, all women, for Songs of Separation, a record which gained ‘Album of the Year’ at the BBC Radio 2 Folk Award in 2017.

More recently, Kate has endeavoured to continue extending her creative and compositional research by studying a Masters’ degree in Scenography in Utrecht, Netherlands.

Kate Young will tour the UK in September and October with her International string quintet hailing from Sweden, Austria, Slovenia and France. 

24th Sept - Worthing Pavillion, Worthing

25th Sept - The Welfare, Swansea

26th Sept - The Slaughtered Lamb, London

28th Sept - ALBUM LAUNCH Stockbridge Parish Church, Edinburgh 

29th Sept - The Old Hairdressers, Glasgow

1st Oct - The Tolbooth, Stirling

2nd Oct – Highfield Trinity Church, Sheffield

3rd Oct - The Met, Bury

4th/5th Oct - Hartlepool Folk Festival

Out on 27th September, Umbelliferæ features an international ensemble of talented musicians, including Su-a Lee (cello), Patsy Reid (viola), May Haliburton (double bass), Tim Lane (drums), Claudia Schwab (violin, Austria), Corrina Hewat (Clàrsach) and Sofia Högstadius (violin, Sweden). Their diverse backgrounds and individual voices shine through in the collaborative spirit of the project. Kate’s journey to create Umbelliferæ began with a commission from Celtic Connections in 2015. She secluded herself in a Northumberland community farm, where she immersed in the world of plants and music. Inspired by herbalists’ texts and guided by her synesthesia (or more specifically ‘Chromesthesia’ – ‘seeing’ colours in sound), Kate’s compositions took on vivid landscapes and forms before transforming into music. 

Speaking about the album, Kate said: "Umbelliferæ is like a long walk through an evening-light-dappled wood, with moments of aromatic gardens and cliff edges where we meet thundering waves. Composing this collection of work has taught me so much and challenged me in so many ways. At its centre is the original incentive for the album; an enlivening of plantlore and medicinal herbal traditions from the British Isles. Yet, to me, it is more than the only concept.

“I wanted to play with the string quintet, challenge norms of the ‘singer and the band’ model – sometimes instrumentation takes the lead, sometimes they counterpoint with the vocal line. I wanted to see where we could go on this journey as I played with etymologies of botanical names woven into sonic dreamscapes. To explore the power of the string quintet and its many shapes and colours, yet always anchored by the verses of the song – like the spine of a book.

“This record is without a doubt the largest piece of work I have accomplished to date. I am hugely thankful to the Paul Hamlyn Foundation for making it possible to record, and beyond thrilled to finally share this with the world." 

The album was mixed and Mastered by Oz Fritz, while tracks 1, 2, 4, 7, 9 and 10 were co-produced with Leo Abrahams and recorded Castlesound Studios in Pencaitland, East Lothian.

Pre-order Umbelliferæ here

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