Garefowl reveal plans for new album, Things That Vanish

Garefowl was originally formed by Ewan Macdonald and his father Murdo, relatives of one of the men who killed the last Great Auk (Garefowl), as a way of reflecting on and marking their family history. Now an international group of musicians combining strings and electronics, Garefowl consists of Nathan Bontrager, Stuart Graham, Chris Jones, Ewan Macdonald, Richard O'Flynn and Jess Whelligan. The songs on their new album are inspired by the threatened seabirds of the islands – Puffin, Guillemot, Storm Petrel, Cormorant, Shearwater, Kittiwake, Gannet, Bonxie and Fulmar – drawing on folk stories that often depict them as primal, dark and haunting, much like sea monsters. "Buthaigir/Puffin" arrives as the first preview of the ten tracks. Things That Vanish draws entirely from sampled and processed field and hydrophone recordings that were collected on St. Kilda, with no use of synthesisers, with drones created through a process pioneered by Richard O'Flynn and Joe Gardner in which rock or bone samples were analysed with X-ray technology. The band will be bringing the songs to the stage with a run of autumn UK headline shows, including a London show at Stone's Nest on 31 October. Things...