Press release | Touraj Moghaddam, founder and chief executive of Vertere, announced that Vertere Records was releasing Will McNicol with Innotet's second album, simply called Volume Two. Will McNicol returns with a stunning new album, accompanied by the specially formed string quartet Innotet.
The new album from Will McNicol with Innotet, Volume 2, represents a profound and musically rich exploration of Will's carefully curated guitar and string quartet instrumentation. With Innotet, Will weaves a beautiful and poignant collection of pieces into a remarkable and endlessly listenable recording.
The album is available on vinyl, half-speed mastered by Miles Showell, on CD and as a digital download. It is available from Vertere Records.
Introducing Will McNicol & Innotet
An acoustic guitar with string quartet is an instrumentation that multi-award-winning guitarist and composer Will McNicol has dreamed of exploring for years. Through this collaboration with Glasgow-based fiddle player and arranger Innes Watson, those dreams have become a reality.
Innotet is the string quartet formed especially for this project and includes some of the finest Scottish musicians in their respective fields: Violin I: Seonaid Aitken, Violin II: Innes Watson, Viola: Patsy Reid, Cello: Alice Allen
Will McNicol, with Innotet's first single release, Emma, and first Album, Volume One (released 2019), was met with praise from the likes of Classic FM, describing their music as 'such a beautiful sound'. Critically acclaimed performances at prestigious festivals such as Celtic Connections and Ullapool Guitar Festival and tracks featured on prominent Spotify advertising campaigns and playlists cemented that Volume Two had to become a reality.
Volume Two comes to life
This second album, Volume Two, comprises 12 tracks, each originating as solo guitar compositions Will wrote over five years. Innes and Will collaborated on the string arrangements for months before hitting the studio (GloWorm Studios in Glasgow) in December 2023 to record the album.
They teamed up with recording and mixing engineer Andrea Gobbi and set about creating the best possible record they could, buoyed by their experiences with Volume One. A central concept was the idea of the guitar becoming part of the ensemble, not simply using strings to accompany solo guitar pieces.
Vertere's involvement
As vinyl specialists and as a record label, Vertere were on board from the beginning, intending to allow a focus on creating the highest-possible quality vinyl record as a result. Part of that process included mastering and vinyl half-speed mastering by the world-renowned mastering engineer Miles Showell.
Album credits
Recorded & Mixed by: Andrea Gobbi
Produced by: Will McNicol, Innes Watson and Andrea Gobbi
Mastered by: Miles Showell
Vinyl Half-Speed mastered by Miles Showell
Background to Will, his guitar and the recording
Having picked up his first guitar at the age of six, Will McNicol has gone on to become Guitarist Magazine's UK Acoustic Guitarist of the Year (2011) and one of Acoustic Guitar Magazine's 30 Great Guitarists Under 30 from around the world (2014). He holds Associate, Licentiate and Fellowship diplomas with Trinity College London in Classical Guitar Recital and has released four critically acclaimed albums of original material.
Will has performed relentlessly throughout his career and has given concerts up and down the UK and abroad. Whether it be headlining his solo shows, performing at festivals, or supporting world-renowned artists such as Pierre Bensusan, Clive Carroll, Jon Gomm, Martin Simpson and Mumford and Sons, among others, his performances have been described as "beautifully flawless" and "magical" by the music press. Having toured, performed, workshopped and given masterclasses in the UK, Ireland, France, Italy, Zimbabwe and China, Will has also made appearances, including multiple concerts and workshops at one of Africa's biggest music festivals – The Harare International Festival of Arts.
Guitars
Tom Sands Guitars - Model M 'Juno' - Top: Redwood, Back & Sides: Madagascar Rosewood, Neck: Mahogany
Studio
Gloworm Studios, Glasgow, Scotland, with SSL AWS 948 Delta Analogue Console
Guitar - Microphones & Preamps: Royer R121 + Neumann km86 in Mid-Side, through Iron Age preamps, with parallel stereo compression through Mohog MoFet76 | 2 x Scheops cmc5 in wide stereo
Violins - Microphones & Preamps: AEA R44 + Flea49 in dual mono, through AEA RPQ and Neve 1073 preamps (respectively)
Cello - Microphones & Preamps: Stager SR3 + Heiserman Fet47 in dual mono, through AEA RPQ and Neve 1073 preamps (respectively)
Viola- Microphones & Preamps: Coles 4038 + Soyuz 013fet in dual mono, through AEA RPQ and Neve 1073 preamps (respectively)
Room - Microphones & Preamps: AEA R88 (Blumlein), 2 x Scheps cmc6 (ORTF), 2 x Heiserman Type 19 (Outriggers)
How Volume Two became Volume Two
"The whole Volume One / Volume Two thing does have a bit of a story," said Will McNicol. "I named the first album Volume One to light a fire beneath me as I knew the project had legs, and it was always the plan to release a second volume having learnt from the first. You can't do just a Volume One, can you? That would be silly! As the albums collate works from various solo projects of mine, from albums to EPs to single releases, the title of Volume seemed to fit well as a bringing together of all the strands."
About Vertere
Reducing engineering to its fundamentals, to get you even closer to the original recording.
When aiming to reproduce the complexities of music, it's all too easy to introduce even more significant complication in the engineering of audio equipment, putting in place one element to solve the problems until the whole design escalates into something fiendishly intricate - and expensive.
That's not the Vertere way: coming at the whole problem with decades of audio and mechanical engineering experience, plus close collaboration with the recording and mastering industry, we step back, take a long hard look at the fundamentals, and look for simple, elegant solutions.
That may sound like a simple "less is more" philosophy, but we prefer to look at it this way: the best audio equipment shouldn't add anything to or remove anything from the original recording. Instead, it should affect it as little as possible; bringing the listener ever closer to what the artist, producer and mastering engineer wanted you to hear.
For further info: to Vertere Acoustics website
