CONCERN about the climate crisis has prompted Scottish composer and filmmaker Adam Stafford to make a personal response.
Believing there are not enough protest songs about the “catastrophic” state of the planet, he has written an entire album about it called Trophic Asynchrony, the name for the increasingly common unseasonable events occurring in the natural world.
Written and recorded during lockdown, the predominantly instrumental album takes its title from the cascade of non-seasonal events due to climate change – of swallows returning in winter, blizzards in summertime and daffodils at Christmas.
“We’re at a real critical crossroads in terms of where humanity is heading and the
systems of neo-liberal excess are happy to eat themselves to death while the rest of us either shrug or shake our heads,” said Stafford (above), who tracked the album in four days with the similarly multi-talented Robbie Lesiuk.
READ MORE: Scottish independence: New song 'sends positive message to young people'
“I wanted to say something relevant about the crisis we face because I think artists and their creations need to reflect these issues, even if it’s in an oblique way. I don’t see many artists with an elevated platform trying to do that. Where is the anger? Where are the protest songs?
“I hear plenty of music about modern malaise and neuroses, about Instagram and sliding into DMs, but not a lot about the catastrophic state of the planet and where we’re heading as a species.
“I don’t want to exist in, or leave a planet to my kids and potential grandchildren, where the wealthy live in air conditioned apartments above street level while the rest of society scrambles below them in some sort of neglected inferno or in a flooded Kevin Costner subaquatic city. Because that’s what will occur if things don’t change course.”
Falkirk-based Stafford said he hoped to add a “tiny bit of dialogue” to the debate in the same way he did with mental illness on his 2018 album Fire Behind The Curtain.
“My platform isn’t significant enough for the album to make a substantial difference
to the course of the future, I’m under no illusions of that,” he said. “But if we can keep talking about the issues and about the
READ MORE: Bid to change homeless people's lives through DJing wins star backing
dangers in newspapers and the media then the pressure stays on the people in power. Once the conversation dissipates, it will be back to neo-libiralism-full-steam-ahead-as-usual.”
Trophic Asynchrony’s oldest track dates back to around November 2018, when Falkirk poet Janet Paisley died at the age of 70.
Known to Stafford since boyhood, Paisley’s poem Watter was the basis of Stafford’s second short film No Hope For Men Below (2013). It also includes the phrase “thrapples clag” (“lump in the throat”) the title of the album’s poignant closing track, which is dedicated to the poet’s memory.
Trophic Asynchrony is out on July 9 in digital form and October 22 on vinyl.
Why are you making commenting on The National only available to subscribers?
We know there are thousands of National readers who want to debate, argue and go back and forth in the comments section of our stories. We’ve got the most informed readers in Scotland, asking each other the big questions about the future of our country.
Unfortunately, though, these important debates are being spoiled by a vocal minority of trolls who aren’t really interested in the issues, try to derail the conversations, register under fake names, and post vile abuse.
So that’s why we’ve decided to make the ability to comment only available to our paying subscribers. That way, all the trolls who post abuse on our website will have to pay if they want to join the debate – and risk a permanent ban from the account that they subscribe with.
The conversation will go back to what it should be about – people who care passionately about the issues, but disagree constructively on what we should do about them. Let’s get that debate started!
Callum Baird, Editor of The National
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules here