This, the debut album by wor_kspace, is my first proper venture into electronic music. It is a collection of songs with elements of drone and experimentalism. It was written over the period of lockdown in 2021 and I knew then that people would be likely to hear it after all that was over so I wanted to focus on hope and light. There is still inevitable sadness in the record though, but I believe that music that doesn’t contain any sadness cannot fully be any good. The idea of ‘hope’ contains sadness by default.
The songs deal with personal relationships. ‘Thanks’, ‘song’ and ‘tungsten’ and ‘weekend’ are straightforward love songs. Some of the songs are difficult to talk about because they are about people and situations who need their privacy protected – like ‘transfer’. Or they are something of a mystery, even to me. ‘Hotels’ was a longing for getting away during the first lockdown. The last two songs are about death, bereavement and loss. ‘Quantum’ is about my dad and the relationship I’ve had with him since he died in 1987. It is a bereavement that never really had a beginning, middle or end. The final song, ‘starship’ is about my cousin, Iain Don who left us in 2021, too young.
The album is attempting to reach out beyond the streets, beyond the sea and beyond the horizon. When you’re writing from a position of isolation it can be easier to see out that far. By writing songs and music that look to the future and the stars, ‘workspace’ attempts to make the personal cosmic.
‘Wor_kspace’ is the electronic musical adventure of Glasgow-based musician and producer, Finlay Macdonald.
Lyrical themes weave around human interaction with the future and visually, Finlay’s paintings, photography and films draw on his Cumbernauld new town past, that of brutalist architecture interfacing with nature and humanity.