Fantasy Island

Forget getting together in the country, Silver Moth met up at a remote studio on the Isle Of Lewis for their debut album, Black Bay. Members of the new ethereal post-rock collective, which include Mogwai's Stuart Braithwaite, speak about stepping into the unknown to create some outstanding art.

- Jeremy Allen

The unlikely formation of Silver Moth sounds like a pitch for a reality TV show or maybe even a badly told joke. What do you get if you take seven (almost) strangers from across the UK– including Stuart Braithwaite from Mogwai – and put them on an Outer Hebridean island for a week? The answer is the album Black Bay, a stunning, post-rock, six-track odyssey out on the Bella Union imprint. As a punchline, it’s disappointing, though the album itself is anything but.

Before we discuss the making of this mystical work of wonder, we need to go back to April 2021 where Braithwaite, his wife Elisabeth Elektra and members of Abrasive Trees, Burning House and Prosthetic Head are assembled in a car park at Ullapool, Stornoway, looking for adventure. Britain is just starting to emerge from a third national lockdown, and the wearing of masks is still mandatory. Nervously the group, many of whom have never met before, make their way via ferry to the Black Bay recording studio on the Isle Of Lewis. It’s owned by Pete Fletcher, whose engineering and mastering has graced albums by noiseniks Arrows Of Love, Bardo Pond, Soulsavers and Snapped Ankles.

“My mum’s from there and I’ve spent a lot of time there. It’s a very unique place,” says Braithwaite, sitting at home in Glasgow with the singer and musician Elektra, and their dog Prince outstretched on the sofa. “It’s a very stark landscape, and you feel very close to the Earth. You don’t have to go very far until you can’t see any evidence of human existence.”