After a wee bit of a hiatus while we concentrated on our summer gig Black Cherry, which focuses on live music and inventive covers, we're back in the studio creating new music for our net-based project Species 8472 once again. We've spruced up the playlist and thought you might like to know a bit more about the songs. More will be appearing soon...as soon as we finish them, that is.....!

Dissatisfaction is a song with lyrics & vocal by Clare, channelling a dark and distinctly adult version of Tinkerbell.  There's always an adult story lurking under children's tales anad folktales, and stylistically, this one is as much Angela Carter as J.M. Barrie.

My Heart's Hung Over is a song by Alasdair about how it feels to be drunk on fresh air. We live in a beautiful and wild region of Scotland. 'Nuff said.

Species 8472 doesn't often do covers - that's Black Cherry's bag - but here's a complete reinvention of Audioslave's anthemic Shadow On The Sun, recast as a traditional Scots lament. Local music teacher Beth Hunter contributed a gorgeous vocal and played the gaelic harp, or clarsach.

A Tripwire features Clare's lyrics set to an old 6/8 musical figure - and an old title - which Alasdair had stuck in his head. It features Irish singer Susanna Wolfe and is all about those weird hinged moments when a door opens and a new phase of your life begins. It can feel like being tripped up.

Clare says Scarburst is about old wounds, old blood which rises to the surface when you least expect it. Alasdair got a bit Nine Inch Nails with it.

Finally, Green Sky is a seven-and-a-half minute epic, a Russian short story by Natalia Kutsepova set to music by Alasdair. Natalia's shimmering vocal performances are far too rare, but she also takes beautiful photographs.