Follow Footsteps EP

Isle-of-Eigg dwelling electro-acoustic psych-pop wonder Pictish Trail, AKA Johnny Lynch, released his fifth album Island Family in 2022 to critical acclaim from all from The Observer and The Times to Mojo, Uncut, Loud and Quiet and BBC 6 Music. As he works on a much-anticipated follow-up, Johnny has decided to revisit the family of songs that made up Island Family once again, and present “reduxes” of three of them in brand new, stripped-back form, recorded together with a specially assembled trio of musicians: Semay Wu on cello, Gillian Fleetwood on harp, and long-time collaborator Susan Bear on keys/bass. The resulting EP, Follow Footsteps, is released on limited-edition 12” vinyl in a gold-foil print sleeve, via Lost Map Records.

By putting the wild, untamed euphoric-bucolic psychedelia of ‘Island Family’, ‘Melody Something’ and ‘Nuclear Sunflower Swamp’ through a softer filter – complimented by a pair of short incidental instrumentals in ‘Follow Footsteps’ and ‘Flowers Rising Into The Black’ – Pictish Trail has discovered delicately kaleidoscopic new resonance in the songs. He credits it with “revitalising” his whole approach to music making.