Live at Knockengorroch Festival 2026

Live at Knockengorroch Festival 2026

This is a live recording made by the very wonderful Alasdair who creates such a magic sound in The Longhouse. It brings you the whole thing, warts and all. Although you will have to use your imagination to see the warts. Thanks also to Nick Jenkins and Katch Holmes for inviting us to be part of the event. This performance was presented at Knockengorroch Festival in Galloway in May 2026. We showed The Sailmaker’s Palm in The Longhouse, a very atmospheric and intimate space by the banks of the river Deugh. This was our forth appearance at the festival in as many years, and great fun. Thanks to the marvellous Oceanallover team, and for those of you that couldn’t be there - we missed you! Dance - Suzi Cunningham, Aaron Jeffrey, Dylan Read and Rosamund McCormac. Music - Joey Sanderson (Jellobass & vocals), Richie Merchant (brass and charango), Nick Jenkins (fiddle), Emma Gillespie (Found sounds & vocals) and Fiona Stephen (violin). Narration, direction and design - Alex Rigg The festival has been running since 1998. I was there that year, playing with Two Left Feet ceilidh band. It continues to be a great gathering of open-minded and happy people. Both of my sons bring their music to the festival with their bands Muckle Spree and Samson Sounds. Link to Knockengorroch - festival website [https://www.knockengorroch.org.uk/about/] ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ On another historical note, I have a long-standing relationship with The Wickerman Music Festival which was also a big deal for the region. Trevor Leat (of Two Left Feet fame) and myself built the fire-giant for the festival every year from 2002 until it finished in 2014. Trevor is a consummate willow sculptor as well as musician. The Wickerman Festival reached an audience of eighteen thousand people and we burned the sculpture each year at midnight on Saturday. We had the fire down to a fine art, albeit with the very basic technology of straw, willow and a lighter. A month of work burned in about thirty minutes. It was really exhilarating!! Link to The Wickerman Music Festival - Wikipedia entry [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wickerman_Festival] I am not an avid festival-goer and slightly intimidated by large groups of people when mingling as a member of the crowd. However, I have very much enjoyed all of my experiences on the Galloway festival scene, including the very unique Nithraid which will be happening on August the 15th this year and will once again feature Oceanallover leading the progress of the Salty Coo. You can read more about the festival here: Link to Nithraid - festival website [https://nithraid.org/] Oceanallover have been part of many festivals and celebrations in Dumfries and Galloway over the thirty years that I have been based here. This next picture show Liz Rankin as Catherine the Great in a project that I made with Mark Zygadlo and Ian Smith called ‘ The Lost Supper’. In this particular version we performed in the snow outside The Stove Network, Dumfries as part of The Big Burns Supper in 2013. Nithraid in Dumfries will be the next chance for you so see my performance work , followed by an appearance at the Pianodrome , Edinburgh on August the 20th. Link to the Pianodrome website [https://www.pianodrome.org/] We will also be performing as part of the Findhorn Bay Festival in October this year. Link to The Finhorn Bay Festival website [https://findhornbayfestival.com/] ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ My new collaborative project Didar -The Encounter will be opening at Summerhall in October. I’ll write more about this soon, but here is an image to give you a flavour of the work. The photograph was taken by Xeder and we were working with Danna Sim. This project is a collaboration with Xeder, Danna Sim, Topaz Pauls, Suzi Cunningham and Bram E Geiben. Link to the Summerhall website [https://www.summerhallarts.co.uk/] ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit theokenstone.substack.com/subscribe [https://theokenstone.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_2]

March Winds

Writing during the drifting of our planet in its relationship to the sun; moving through the equinox from winter into spring. A homage to the land journeys of amphibians everywhere. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit theokenstone.substack.com/subscribe [https://theokenstone.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_2]

February 2026

Written and recorded on Valentine's day, 2026 This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit theokenstone.substack.com/subscribe [https://theokenstone.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_2]

Brother Mother

Brother Mother - Five poems for Yule Tide This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit theokenstone.substack.com/subscribe [https://theokenstone.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_2]

Carcere (Prison)

I went to Napoli recently to continue working on a collaboration with Iranian photographer Xeder. We began our project in Edinburgh in 2024 and have since passed through St Veran in the south of France arriving on Ischia and then Vomero in Naples. Our sessions in Italy were strongly coloured by visits to the National Art Gallery to look at paintings by Caravaggio and many religious epics. Our work was also flavoured by the haunted streets of Pompeii, and by the presence of a large octopus from the local market. Altogether a very dynamic and dramatic time. So here are four pieces of writing reflecting on those experiences, alongside a sound recording made whilst walking through the market of Montesanto, and a drawing of an octopus in the Greek style. ~~~~ Surgery’s DoorDragons at the door holdfast and mark their terra-torialearth, grip the handle hereto follow serpentine ways,opens pages of sinuousthought, summons viscous tearstraces the path of thoughts pastuntil their forms writhe and slideupon vellum voluptuous,nails black claws, skin sheathed,pearlescent, inviting;questions hiss, gaping -teeth a promissory note I owethe bearer of this fleshan invitation shouldyou accept a change madethat cannot be a step inany way because there areno feet the journey abeginning, middle and an end. ~~~~~~~~~~~ Naples Street Eating sweet pastries and baba, the smell offish heavy around us; scooters and menwith thick arms and fingers revvv orshout their engines running past girlswith thicker lips glossed seriouslyshiny black hair tossed back laughwith friends where shellfish snap,bubbling in shallow trays of brineonly minutes away from boilingshare their final moments withindomitable lobsters so very aliveuntil dead like all here in this morning’spescatarian tableau vivantall scales and sales. ~~~~~~~~~ Road Side Shrine Blue leaves and blossoms spreadthrough a ceramic floor, opening undera lace of white plaster dust and broken glass.Sculptures soften, slide quietlyfrom pedestals and leave.Tissues and condom packets line up at the window’sledge looking out towards the Mediterranean Seawhere pleasure boats loiter and roar.Along the road dogs are walked atlead’s length but never here to wherethe Gods have fucked and then fucked off.A green cupola collects light and sound,sending them inwards and downwards tofall upon the supplicants, miraculous andfull of hope, kneeling in reveriebeneath an empty niche, a note on thewall written with ash or scratched withpumice wishes most sincerely that they willforgive this little absence, this departurefrom the sacred, from shared sufferings,and have the very best of days. ~~~~~~ Krakenate Pale blue eye sees sure as I seeeights and creels and cold green stories. Tentacled dance splits the bivalves;opens their hearts, survival rivals. Succertronic pneumaticals;your beak bites hard, brain empirical. Wrap your arms round my pseudo palps;coloured cuticle psycho pomps. Creel caught dead drop octopodus;molluscula cephalopod. Death is for babies, senescence;love happens once, camouflaged wants. Ink and swim sugar, poisonous arts;too sexy by far, eight point star. From abyssal depths to shallow shoresyour mantle cavity tempts and allures. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ AR 2025 Photography by Xeder: https://mehrphoto.wordpress.com/about/ This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit theokenstone.substack.com/subscribe [https://theokenstone.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_2]