Fiona Soe Paing: Sand,Silt, Flint with Quinie

Sand, Silt, Flint brings to life the acclaimed album from singer-producer Fiona Soe Paing, praised by Songlines as “a sublimely powerful and lingering experience” and by Iggy Pop as “advanced and beautiful.” Contemporary re-workings of Northeast Scottish ballads sit alongside innovative compositions inspired by folklore and landscape, drawing audiences into the places and stories behind each song. With haunting live vocals, striking visuals by Isla Goldie, archival audio fragments from the School of Scottish Studies, and recorded contributions from premier Scottish instrumentalists Paul Anderson and Alice Allen, this mesmerising audiovisual experience charts a dreamlike journey through time and place - a hypnotic fusion of music, myth and moving image.

Quinie works with Scots song as an evolving tradition. She explores the connection between voice and piping, drawing on the repertoire of Lizzie Higgins and poet Marion Angus. Her 2025 album Forefowk, Mind Me bridges folk and experimental music, weaving Scots, Irish, and Gaelic melodies with original compositions, improvisation, and poetry. The Guardian named it Folk Album of the Month, describing it as “alive with ideas.” For this special Celtic Connections performance, Quinie is joined by her full band, Ailbhe Nic Oireachtaigh (viola), Oliver Pitt (duduk), Harry Górski-Brown (smallpipes), and Stevie Jones (double bass). The result is, in the words of Songlines, “arresting, demanding, revealing and absorbing... once heard, unforgotten. These songs travel.”