Erland Cooper

Carve the Runes Then Be Content With Silence 

Earth meets music in a special evening with ‘nature’s songwriter’ (The Guardian), Erland Cooper.

Erland Cooper is a Scottish composer, producer and multi-instrumentalist originally from Stromness, Orkney. As a solo artist, he has released five acclaimed studio albums. Among them is a trilogy of work inspired by his childhood home and themes of nature, people, place and time. Erland’s work combines field recordings with traditional orchestration and contemporary electronic elements. Through music, words and cinematography, he explores landscape, memory and identity.

Three years ago in Scotland, Erland buried the only existing master tape of his ground-breaking album ‘Carve The Runes Then Be Content With Silence‘. He deleted all digital files and left only a treasure hunt of clues for anyone to seek it. The tape was found in 2023 and his unique collaboration with nature is now out in the world for all to hear. It topped the UK Official Classical Album Charts in October 2024.

The first half of this evening’s concert will show ‘Recomposing Earth’, a film about the process Erland went through to create ‘Carve The Runes’, before hearing the music from the artist himself. What happens when an artist risks losing the only recording of their album, by burying it in the earth in the name of art? From director Christian Cargill (Winner of Tribeca Festival & BAFTA Cymru Award), ‘Recomposing Earth’ takes you into the mind of an artist and the magic of the Orkney Islands that inspire him, with a story that reminds us of music’s importance as an expression of the human condition. With interviews including Paul Weller, producer Marta Salogni and Sir Ian Rankin.