12th Isle: The Glasgow label mapping landscapes on an imagined isle

According to a Brussels-based record store, 12th Isle “sets the benchmark high for contemporary ambient productions” thanks to a steady carousel of releases – numbering around 20 on vinyl, digital and tape formats to date – each as remarkable as the last.”

A music-without-borders approach to curation has seen the label welcome artists from disparate places such as Aarhus, Toronto, Grenoble, Athens and Glasgow and music that has taken the form of Soviet interpretations of El Dorado and themes of ancient Greek folklore through a futurist lens to autobiographical field recordings from the French Alps and, closer to home, “murky casks of Tennent’s Lager”. 

READ MORE: 'We have this DIY spirit': Optimo (Espacio) on 26 years together behind the decks

Drawing upon Scottish mythology, cartography and mysticism, 12th Isle, as the name suggests, speaks of imagined worlds and the desideratum to both chart new zones and landscapes and dig deeper to unearth beautiful, new sonic treasure within it. 

And yet, while it sounds like something straight out of the library of famed Flemish 16th-century cartographer and scholar Gerardus Mercator, it’s an ethos that’s been conjured up from the collective minds of four young suburban Scots – Fergus Clark, Ruaidhri McGhee, Al White and Stewart Brown – who met at a university radio station. 

Clark explains: “We met through the radio. 12th Isle was born from [Glasgow University’s] Subcity Radio. We then began to put on nights and very quickly the idea to start a label was established. 

“From the very beginning the idea was to connect with people making music all round the world. There’s a lot of collaborations with people we’ve met over the years who we invited over to play for us or who we got to meet in other countries. It’s been a kind of weird unifying thing.  

12th Isle (Image: 12th Isle)

“The name 12th Isle is referencing an isle ideal. There’s this idea of taking all the sounds together and building something.  

“We are all interested in the idea of Scottish mythology and world-building on that in a globalised world. Bringing in Greek music, Krautrock made in America. Bringing different strands of music into something that’s localised.

Brown adds: “There’s a kind of connection to the fourth world. In the name and the aesthetic. There’s a Scottish mystic take on that.”

Speaking of their aesthetic, fundamental to the label’s identity and imprint in the psyche of crate-diggers the world over is Al White’s instantly recognisable and unique sci-fi surrealist sleeve-design artwork that maps out the imagined “12th Isle” – an Ordnance Survey of sorts to their otherworldly transmissions. 

“The theme is always that Al does the art,” says Clark. “He visualises the music that we come across. Some releases have been worked on by Stuart, by Al, Ruaidhri and some by me. 

12th Isle (Image: 12th Isle)

We find or come across music in natural ways or in some way, and we all kind of have an agreed thread on how we interpret that music and if it’s right for the label. It happens quite naturally in a way. Al then decides how to visualise this and the sleeves for the record and the digital art are born through him. Our visual identity is extremely important.” 

Our blether takes place in The State Bar in Glasgow – under the watchful eye, no less, of a huge historic map of the city that adorns the ceiling – ahead of 12th Isle’s latest release, which will be the first from one of their own in the form of co-founder Stewart Brown. 

Under the production moniker of Material Things, the release is a part debut almbum, part compendium of musical collaborations spanning the period from 2015 to 2020. 

As a collection, the eight tracks combine influences from minimalism, concrete and avant-garde jazz and techno yet also embrace friendship, experimentation and curiosity whilst capturing five years of Brown’s own personal life. 

READ MORE: The Greek photographer putting Scotland’s music scene in the picture

He admits that part of his motivation in producing a record was to be able to release something that would be brought to life visually by “an Al White artwork”.

Brown says: “I started producing or learning to produce in 2014 just as the label was starting to begin. As soon as we started 12th Isle my goal was to come up with something that I thought was good enough to be on the label. It only took seven years.

“I was always working on music, I was always collaborating with people and having jam sessions and recording with people and looking for things that were of the right quality and the right tone. 

“The main point for me was not so much a concept album, it was just that each track somehow shone a light on a different angle of the label and of the DJ interests that people on the label have. Not so much the flow of the album but the identity of the individual pieces. 

“When I saw the first record we put out, another reason I wanted to do a 12th Isle [album] was that I wanted to have an Al White artwork. That was really the motivation. I want to write music that he responds to. The motivation was to write music that was good enough for an Al White artwork.” 

12th Isle (Image: 12th Isle)

Clark adds: “We have a fully formed album now from one of the people who started the label. It’s kind of weird that this full-circle thing has taken this long but it’s also nice that it’s not been rushed. 

“It’s something that’s happened as organically as the releases have happened. We aren’t professional enough to give artists deadlines to submit an album by, that’s not how we work.”

Some of the recordings on the record began as long, one-take improvisations spliced together and revisited years later, while others, Brown adds, were based upon “chance opportunities” to record with musicians operating a long way from the parameters of 12th Isle. 

The album encapsulates the 12th Isle doctrine of cultivating music, and relationships, over a period of time until bodies of work reach release form – some of which have been the fruits of the most tenuous of initial connections.

“Some of the releases took years to come together,” says Brown. “It was very much like a feedback loop between the artist and us. A series of tracks cultivating into a release. Us ending up going and working with artists and doing live gigs with them. 

2015​-​2020 by Material Things is out now (Image: 12th Isle)

We’ve never had a disagreement on a release. We’ve all got an interest in a really wide range of music and collecting or seeking out music. When we hear something, straight away you just know if it’s a fit. There’s not really necessarily any rules around that”.

Clark adds: “Things have just come along our way. At times you plan something in advance and at times not. 

“But we’ve kept this going now since 2016 and there’s been no overarching business plan. We’ve found a natural way to keep the interest alive in some way, to keep it going.

A lot of things have landed with me, things that have not had a label. I can’t explain how they’ve come to me but they have, and I’ve felt like, ‘I need to make this happen’. 

“All of us have been involved in different capacities with different releases on the label and pushing to make them releases.”

“Some things come to us magically almost in like a pure form,” he adds.

“After Stuart’s record we have a sound art kind of tape collage album by two guys in Madrid. And this just landed via a friend of mine in London. Perfectly formed almost. 

“Some things take a lot of time and work and other things just magically happen.”

2015​-​2020 by Material Things is available now to purchase via the 12th Isle bandcamp page here