noodle: Scotland’s Experimental Music Round-Up (Autumn/Winter 2026)

Honestly, you take a couple of months off and suddenly everybody decides to release music. Always the way of it. Anyway, there are definitely worse problems to have than having too much good stuff to listen to!

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SLIPPING

Kicking off our autumnal round-up is Slipping, a new record label from Stevenston focusing on experimental and improvised music. Coming out of the gates with two absolutely excellent releases, they’ve put out the second vinyl release from Glasgow/Nottingham wonky music luminaries Food People Rainsmoked Christmas followed very closely by Refrain by Taylor Daukas.

The former is exactly the kind of joyously chaotic collaboration that we’ve come to know Food People for, all intense building tension and giddy release.

Refrain is a much more delicate proposition, combining field recording, naive instrumentation, and Daukas’ featherweight vocals like twinkling light. I’ve not been this excited about anything from Ayrshire since TTF played at Hangar 13.

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SCATTER ARCHIVE

A label that has been pushing that particular envelope for quite a while now are the excellent Scatter Archive whom I seem to mention almost every time I write this column because their releases are both prolific and always high quality.

Aves de paso features Argentinian improv quartet Inti Sabev, Benjamin Vergara, Pablo Vázquez, and Marcelo von Schultz. All very impressive artists in their own right – Vergara is Professor of music improvisation at the Universidad Austral de Chile – here they bring their considerable talent together on three pieces led by trumpet and clarinet that nod to the South American classical tradition whilst taking it on a free noise joyride.

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JUSTYNA JABLONSKA

Also taking classical music to new and unexpected destinations is Edinburgh-based cellist Justyna Jablonska who takes the rhythmic nature of the cello and adds influence from electronic music, Eastern European folk song, and interviews with Ukrainian, Roma, and Polish migrants to create a truly singular piece of work that takes on themes of nature and migration, change and loss. She also has a PhD in Disco which is just objectively the coolest bit of academia possible.

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RACHEL DUNS

When I do finally make that Scottish jazz family tree that I keep threatening, self-proclaimed ‘saxophone fairy’ Rachel Duns will be a prominent node, having played with a substantial majority of the musicians that make their way out of Renfrew Street.

Her self-titled EP leans into a psychedelic take on the traditional vocal jazz, four melodic and soulful tracks recorded in a single take that sneak some smart bits of improvisation under her gentle sweetness. ‘Don’t Need No Sunshine’ sits somewhere between Acid Jazz and Carmen McRae and is exactly as blissful as that sounds.

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TILDE

If that’s all a bit too smooth for you, fear not. The other end of the spectrum is well represented by Tilde and Do Not Mourn Him Atop Mounds of Earth, a bracing harsh bit of power electronics that shifts from ominous drone to abrasive metallic screech and proudly proclaims ‘DEATH TO FALSE METAL’. I can only assume that the 11th September release date was intentional.

This is Tilde’s third release of 2026 and he’s showing no signs of slowing down in either work ethic or pure bloody-minded intensity.

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SOUND THOUGHT

Sound Thought are a community organisation supporting emerging artists and musicians based in Glasgow. Their first album Sound Thought Live at La Chunky was, funnily enough, recorded live at La Chunky studios with the tracks simply taking the names of the performers and culminating in the full group on ‘Together’. Beautiful in its bravery and spontaneity, and just a lovely thing to be able to support.

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LOW LANDS

Edinburgh artist low lands returns with their first release since 2024 album hollow limestone hill which was their take on Arthurian legend featuring field recordings and modular synthesis. live at standard life swaps the legendary for the prosaic, a walk round their neighbourhood with stolen snatches of conversation making for compelling song titles.

‘morningside death cult’ definitely seems like the start of a story that I want to hear, though ‘intrigued by microplastics’ is probably self-explanatory. There’s a charming silliness to this. It isn’t afraid to not be taken seriously and is all the more engaging for it.

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MANIATRIX

Taking themselves too seriously is not an accusation that could be levelled at maniatrix, an ambient artist in a muscle suit and exploring themes of masculinity through Enya-esque gothic vocals, atmospheric electronic beats, and looking really sick in a pair of sunglasses. Released on tape label PX4M, Body Build Rate takes on serious topics with a sense of humour, realising that sometimes the best way to take on machismo is to laugh at it.

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RUSSELL HASWELL

And finally, Russell Haswell is on his 15th release of the year, 40 minutes of the kind of beautiful ecstatic drone that washes out every other thought in your mind with Early Layers. Haswell seems to be on such a mission of productivity that between me picking the shortlist for this article and writing it he has actually put out another album. So 16th then. 16th. Literally producing music faster than I can write about it.

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That’s all from me, unless Haswell puts out another album before we go to print. Be excellent to each other.