IT is an arresting line-up for any new group: an award-winning arranger and composer who has scored feature films, TV dramas and documentaries; a celebrated Scottish stage and screen actor; and a renowned singer songwriter who has just released her tenth solo album. 

They are, in order, Malcolm Lindsay, Blythe Duff and Yvonne Lyon. Together, they are Lacunas Music Society, and their launch event takes place in Bearsden on November 14. 

Malcolm’s distinguished work includes the score for the Niall Ferguson-presented TV series, Civilisation, as well as for two Michael Palin documentaries on art, and the 2003 film Young Adam, which starred Ewan McGregor and Tilda Swinton. A more recent project was an album with PJ Moore & Co, When A Good Day Comes, made by a trio that saw him work alongside the singer Mike McKenzie and PJ Moore, formerly of The Blue Nile. 

Blythe, of course, has appeared in everything from TV’s Taggart to playwright Rona Munro’s James IV: Queen of the Fight. Yvonne has supported Eddi Reader on tour and has performed with Beth Nielsen Chapman and co-written with Boo Hewerdine. 

Malcolm is excited by the possibilities of his latest venture. 

“Blythe and I had arranged to have a chat about music”, he said earlier this week. “We spoke for quite a long time and thought that maybe we would ask Yvonne to join us for a workshop-type thing. So we got together to try out some things ideas. Yvonne and I began improvising around a piece and Blythe joined in with some spoken words. It was quite an unusual thing to do, given that this was the first time we had all got together. It was so exciting from that point of view. 

“We really enjoyed that first rehearsal, and so we decided on some songs to work through, and some more abstract that we’ll be performing at the Kilmardinny House arts centre in Bearsden on November 14. 

“Yvonne and I are both writers, but all three of us share responsibilities in terms of the song arrangements. We have got 15 tracks that we will be performing on the night, and there's a real variety in them; I think that's the most exciting thing for me. 

“There have been no boundaries to what we have been creating. It has just been an engaging process all the way. More usually, I am engaged on something with a specific brief: working to a film or producing an album, so this has been liberating to start with a blank canvas and see where it takes us”. 

On their Facebook page and website the trio has released snippets of a couple of songs - Homelands, and Weather Data. 

In terms of what has influenced the sounds of Lacunas Music Society, Lindsay cites classical music, and the superb contemporary minimalist composer, the Estonia-born Arvo Pärt, while the acclaimed, Pulitzer Prize-winning American composer Steve Reich has been an influence behind a 15-minute-long piece they have devised. 

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Yet another influence is the strand of music known as Americana; Lindsay was once in the alt.country band, Willard Grant Conspiracy. Yvonne, who has been widely praised - by Bob Harris, amongst others - also brings her own Americana tastes to bear. 

“When you add Blythe’s superb vocals and spoken-word contributions, I think we have come up with an interesting set of songs", Malcolm adds.

Perhaps unusually for a new band that consists of such varied talents, Lacunas Music Society has no current plans for an album. 

“That’s really part of the journey we’re on. Yvonne has done 11 of her own albums and I’ve worked on many albums as well. In a sense I was very keen to just concentrate on live music, having sat in a studio for 20 years! 

“We have obviously recorded some of our work in order to focus our thoughts, and plan to release the Homelands piece as a single in January next year. 

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“The three of us were all very clear at the start that we would set ourselves the challenge of performing live. That was the key goal. At the start we said, let’s just do one gig and see if we like it!” 

The Kilmardinny arts venue is only a short walk from Malcolm’s house. “It’s a beautiful space which has been recently upgraded. 

“We can promise a very strong visual element to the gig, which is going under the title of love loss data, as we have been working with the visual artist Melanie Sims. She and I have worked together before, for the Scottish Chamber Orchestra amongst others. We’re lucky to have Melanie on board. For our more instrumental pieces she has devised thoughtful visuals. 

“Weather Data is a long piece inspired by someone we knew who passed away a couple of years ago, an avid observer of weather. We’re using his hand-written charts and even including aspects of the data he collected within the piece. Every day he would write in his weather diary about what was happening around him. He was so meticulous in how he recorded things and his diary is very moving, I think. His weather charts have been a genuine inspiration to us”. 

Does Lacunas Music Society have any plans beyond the launch concert the week after next? 

“Not yet”, says Malcolm. “But I think we have all been heartened by the progress we’ve made so far. We are all enjoying the creative process. For the performance we will be joined by two leading musicians – Jon Hargreaves and Cameron Maxwell - and the five of us all met up yesterday (Nov 2)  for the first time. Our hope is that we can take things forward and do a tour of some kind.” 

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Despite publicising the performance only on social media, Lacunas Music Society has sold all but a handful of tickets for next week’s concert. If you can’t get tickets for the show, with luck there will be further dates in the pipeline. In the meantime, you can enjoy tasters of their music on their Facebook page. They are a rewarding listen. 

* Lacunas Music Society: love loss data, Kilmardinny House Art Centre, Kilmardinny Avenue, Bearsden, 8pm, Thursday November 14.

https://www.malcolmlindsay.com/

https://www.yvonnelyonmusic.com.