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Scottish quartet
Modern Studies unite pastoral chamber pop and folk with a gently experimental approach. Incorporating lush harmonies, jazz-tinged rhythms, and subtle electronics, the band have produced a string of elaborate full-lengths including 2018's
Welcome Strangers and 2022's
We Are There.
Modern Studies formed in 2015 around the songwriting of Glaswegian musician
Emily Scott. Having recently written a set of songs on an antique pedal harmonium, which she was about to donate to her friend
Pete Harvey's studio,
Scott's material soon became the center of a new collaboration with
Harvey,
Joe Smillie, and Rob St. John. The group of multi-instrumentalists assembled at
Harvey's Pumpkinfield studio in rural Perthshire and adorned
Scott's thoughtful tunes with cello, analog synths, double bass, drums, and a variety of other tones, emerging with their full-length debut,
Swell to Great. Released by Scottish label Song, By Toad in September 2016, the album became a critical success, making MOJO Magazine's Top 20 year-end list. In addition to their LP,
Modern Studies were also featured on a 2015 tribute compilation of songs by U.K. folk legend
Shirley Collins called Shirley Inspired. In November 2016,
Swell to Great was reissued worldwide by
Fire Records.
In 2017, the band began recording their sophomore record. They returned to
Harvey's Pumpkinfield studio and acquired a grant that allowed them to hire a chamber orchestra and a village hall in which to record the album.
Welcome Strangers was released in 2018. Artist and sound designer
Tommy Perman then crafted a vastly different electronic interpretation of the album,
Emergent Slow Arcs, which was issued in 2019.
Modern Studies returned to business in May 2020 with their third full-length,
The Weight of the Sun, folding in more electronic elements as well as a Krautrock influence. Released two years later, fourth album
We Are There saw their ever-expanding palette touch on lush string-laden Baroque pop, dark jazzy rhythms, and twilit harmonies. ~ Timothy Monger