HE has written landmark novels, painted celebrated murals and penned plays and poems - and now Alasdair Gray is to appear on his first record.
The disc to be released in January 2015 features Gray's "melodious and distinctive" voice as well as the tune he conceived for one of his poems entitled A Sentimental Song.
The record is the soundtrack to A Life in Progress, the film made by Kevin Cameron, composed by Glasgow musician Scott Twynholm, known for his bands Looper and Hoboken as well as music for theatre productions, film and TV.
The soundtrack is being released on January 26 on De-Fence records and the hour-long edit of the film will be broadcast on BBC 2 Scotland tomorrow.
Twynholm said it made sense to sample Gray's words in the the documentary when making the record.
The documentary and record come as the writer and artist celebrates his 80th birthday, with a number of celebrations in Glasgow including a major exhibition at the Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum.
Twynholm said: "Alasdair's delivery was a major part ... in some songs I sample his voice, while in others it acts as a lead instrument, sitting on top of the musical texture as he delivers readings from his novels; it's such a melodious and distinctive sound.
"There's also footage [in the film] of Alasdair singing in a rather splendid tenor voice while he works.
"With this in mind I wrote music based on his poem, 'A Sentimental Song'.
"When we spoke I discovered he also had a melody for it; we sang our versions down the phone and agreed to record it, but, unfortunately when the time came, he was busy with other projects."
Twynholm ended up recording an instrumental version to go along with footage from Gray's Òran Mór mural, with vocals from Icelandic artist Biggi Hilmars recording a "beautiful vocal" for the record.
The composer said the music for the film, and now the record, was directly inspired by Gray's life and work.
He said: "I found the tailpiece of the novel Lanark, How Lanark Grew, most informative.
"Not only did it answer questions about the novel, but described in some detail other aspects of his life; from Growing up in Riddrie, through art school, his first drawings and interests - films, reading material etc.
"It gave me an overview of not just how Lanark grew, but of how Alasdair Gray grew.
"He talks of enjoying works that mix genres: The Wizard of Oz film, Hans Anderson's stories, Ibsen's Peer Gynt, Goethe's Faust, classical myths and some books of the bible."
He added: "All these mingle everyday doings with supernatural ones.
"I wanted to apply this aesthetic to the music; to use instrumentation that on the one hand would sound familiar but to combine and use the instruments in unfamiliar ways to make something more supernatural; this I hoped would represent the collision of real and imagined worlds in his art."
Twynholm's next work is also linked to literature, a dance piece for BalletLorent based on a short story by Sara Maitland.
The Gray record will be released next month.
Twynholm added: "I had no intention of releasing a record when writing for the film. It was only when reviewing the material I thought it could stand alone.
"Happily De-Fence agreed."
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