Emmy-nominated Scottish composer and multi-instrumentalist Erland Cooper will release the new EP Sula bassana through Mercury KX on August 21. Recorded with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, the work takes its title from the Northern Gannet and draws its central imagery from the Bass Rock off North Berwick. The composition returns Cooper to an avian subject from his earlier work while placing the island and its surrounding coast at the center of the score.
Fringe by the Sea commissioned Sula bassana as the centerpiece of the inaugural Love of Life festival, which examined biophilia and people’s relationship with nature. The work premiered inside an immersive installation created with artist Naomi McIntosh before being prepared for release beyond that original setting. “The Bass Rock is a unique geological island I have long wanted to visit,” Cooper said. “My piece aims to celebrate air, sea, land, community and the wonders of the natural world. I hope it offers listeners a place to reflect, to wonder, and to reconnect with both themselves and the world around them.”
The recorded version combines an 80-piece orchestra with environmental sound gathered on the Bass Rock, placing details from the location inside the orchestral score. The recording follows Cooper’s established practice of placing field sound alongside orchestration and using landscape as part of the musical structure. Solan Goose, released in 2018, opened a trilogy that continued with Sule Skerry in 2019 and Hether Blether in 2020. Across the three records, Cooper moved from birdlife to the sea and then the land, using Orcadian landscape as the shared framework. Sule Skerry was named to the 2020 Scottish Album of the Year Award shortlist.
More recently, Cooper released the five-track Berriedale EP on August 8, 2025, with titles including “Berriedale on Hoy” and “Rackwick Glen.” On December 5, 2025, Kings Place presented the world premiere of his small-ensemble work “The Peregrine” as part of its Earth Unwrapped series. The concert marked Cooper’s Kings Place debut. Later that month, the Princess of Wales and Princess Charlotte performed Cooper’s “Holm Sound” in a piano duet for ITV’s Royal Carols: Together at Christmas, broadcast on Christmas Eve.
