The Scottish Music Industry Association (SMIA) has announced the inaugural longlist for The Scottish Album of the Year Award. Featuring the 20 highest scoring titles to emerge from the award’s nomination process, the list champions an eclectic range of albums and artists. From jazz to reggae soundsystems via folk, electronica, house, rock, dub, modern classical (and everything in between), The SAY longlist provides a diverse snapshot of Scotland’s musical landscape and establishes the award as possibly one of the UK’s most exciting and progressive arts prizes.
As well as featuring critically acclaimed albums from the likes of King Creosote and Jon Hopkins (with their Mercury nominated ‘Diamond Mine’), it also demonstrates the success of the award’s egalitarian approach. The Happy Particles album, ‘Under Sleeping Waves’ was previously only available as a download from their Bandcamp page. Muscles of Joy’s eponymous debut was released on vinyl only, with handmade sleeves. Now, both albums will be awarded CD manufacturing runs with production costs covered (in the short-term) by the SAY Award, ensuring both artists can capitalise on any heightened profile and have their CDs racked alongside other nominated titles.
“In such a nation of music lovers, it’s no surprise that The Scottish Album of the Year Award is such an eclectic and entertaining list and brimming with talent. In this Year of Creative Scotland, the Awards are a brilliant way to raise the profile of our musicians. Congratulations to all of the artists!”
Andrew Dixon, Chief Executive of Creative Scotland
May 14th- The public can vote for their favourite album from the longlist via The SAY Award website (www.sayaward.com) and a specially designed app. The public’s choice will earn a guaranteed slot on the shortlist.
May 17th- This longlist will be reduced to a shortlist of ten, by a panel of judges.
June 19th- The winning album will be announced at a prestigious ceremony in Glasgow Film City earning a grand prize of £20,000. The nine runners-up will each receive £1,000. All ten shortlisted finalists will receive an artwork from the winner of a unique SAY Award art commission which celebrates the enduring links that exist between music and art. The commission, valued at £20,000, will be offered to graduates from Scotland’s four principal art schools with the winning graduate (selected, in this pilot year, from Glasgow’s School of Art) producing ten artworks to be donated as prizes for the shortlisted finalists.
For the latest Scottish Album of the Year Awards news, check out www.sayaward.com, www.facebook.com/SAYaward and follow on Twitter @SAYaward
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