Interview: The Other

“The ‘other’ is a reflection of yourself,” says Iain Mackechnie, paraphrasing Polish writer Ryszard Kapuściński, from whose book Mackechnie took the title for his collaborative musical project The Other. Weaving together diverse musical styles and visual art, the project aims to dissolve the perceived barriers between ourselves and who we see as “other”. This year, the group are performing in the Fringe as part of the Made in Scotland Showcase. 

Formed in 2019 as a collaboration between Mackechnie and four Iranian musicians, The Other received funding from Creative Scotland in 2021 and were able to bring in more artists, including Chilean percussionist Jose Rojas, Scottish harpist Esther Swift, Brazilian double bassist Mario Caribe, and English multi-instrumentalist Matt Wright.

“For me the real magic comes when we play live,” Wright says. “Whenever we play live… there's this lovely connection that we find between the musicians and between the audience as well. It's been a really lovely collaboration from that point of view.”

The project has evolved into a collective of eight musicians and a visual artist, some of whom have experienced immigration and forced displacement. With so many musicians, each influenced by different traditions and styles, it’s intriguing to hear how their compositions take shape. 

Mackechnie explains that the band’s first pieces were born out of his collaborations with the Iranian musicians, including vocalist Aref Ghorbani. “Aref's a trained Persian traditional singer. So his vocals on top of ideas just take it to another space.”

And now with more instruments at their disposal, there’s further colour and texture to be woven in. “Matt's on sax and flute. His solos really reflect what Aref's influence is, and they complement each other so brilliantly,” Mackechnie enthuses. “And then with Mario on double bass, there's a couple of pieces where it moves more into a Latin feel. We have Erfan Imandar who plays Daf, which is a Persian frame drum. So he can set a different feel to it, and then Jose puts something in and we can swing about within that.” 

Recently, The Other has taken on a new dimension, incorporating visuals from Yemeni artist Shatha Altowai. Altowai is an oil painter, but taught herself to create digital art ahead of The Other’s performance at Art27 Scotland’s Festival of Migration last year. “When I went inside their rehearsal room,” she remembers, “I moved to another world. So I came up with a different art style.”

The musicians have been inspired by her work in return, and, alongside pianist Saber Bamatrof, they have recently been collaborating on a multi-media piece called Just Like Her Mum, exploring the issue of female genital mutilation. “It's an idea that I kept hidden inside my head, not even talking about it while I was in Yemen because it's a little bit sensitive and there’s a risk in [discussing] these issues for me as a woman and as an artist. So as long as I'm here in Scotland it's like, now it's my stage to speak,” explains Altowai. 

The Other are keen to seize further opportunities to collaborate with artists of different disciplines, with plans to integrate dance and film in the future. Wright hopes they will be able to take the show on tour one day. But Mackechnie explains that much is dependent on the funding they receive for the project. 

Despite the challenges, however, the positive impact of cross-cultural collaboration for all the artists couldn’t be clearer. “I felt it really, really inspiring to see all these different cultures together playing music,” Altowai reflects. “We understand each other with the music and sound, and translating it into artwork is really a privilege to me.”