Sand, Silt, Flint
★★★★☆ Resonant
Greenside @ George St (Venue 236): Fri 7 – Sat 22 Aug 2026
Review by Hugh Simpson
Sand, Silt, Flint, from Scottish/Burmese singer and producer Fiona Soe Paing, uses the songs of her native Aberdeenshire to provide an arresting musical display.
There is a screen in the background of the space at Greenside @ George Street, showing old maps and the nature and landscape of the North-East of Scotland (images from Isla Goldie), and the music draws on the muckle sangs of that area, sometimes said by collectors to be the ballad capital of the world.
Fiona Soe Paing in Sand. Salt. Flint. Pic: Jannica Honey.
These are some of the most striking songs ever to come out of Scotland: Burning of Auchindoun, Bessy Bell and Mary Gray, and a storming version of Tifty’s Annie (often better known as Andrew Lammie). There are also newer songs based on folklore of the area, and the highest praise that can be given to these is that the joins aren’t always immediately obvious.
Although Soe Paing is billed as an ‘avant folk experimentalist’, there isn’t anything particularly out-there about the recorded backing. It’s certainly more immediately accessible, for example, than some of the work of the late, great Martyn Bennett. There are electronica washes and the odd bleep and bloop, but much of it is made up of spare, often repeated motifs on acoustic instruments – guitar, cello or clarsach.
It’s all tasteful, and with none of the messing about or gimmicky following of fashion that can bedevil the genre. Not that it ever really matters – as Martin Carthy has pointed out, the songs are resilient and will survive whatever you throw it them.
platform
Here it is done with respect, is fairly hypnotic, and creates a platform for Soe Paing’s voice, which is a mighty instrument used dramatically yet with restraint in the service of the songs.
There are snatches of recordings of old tradition bearers and collectors during the show; a device that has been used before but can be a real hostage to fortune. Here it comes off, and not just because of Soe Paing’s recently discovered family connection to the great Bothy Ballad singer John Strachan – something that provided an initial inspiration for the project.
There are undoubtedly huge reserves of emotion to be found here, with hints of that emotional flow state and deep connection to the material that the great singers of Traveller families called the conyach.
Most of the storytelling here comes from the singing; there’s a striking costume that looks like it has emerged from the sea or grown out of the ground, and sparing use of gesture, but there is scope for even more of a visual element. As it is, the performance hints at elements of the theatrical, and at times seems to want to go down that route, but never quite gets there.
As it is, however, this is a musically satisfying performance with deep and intriguing roots.
Running time: One 50 minutes (no interval).
Greenside @ George St (Jade Studio), The Royal Society of Edinburgh, 22-26 George St, EH2 2PQ. (Venue 236).
Friday 7 – Saturday 22 August 2026.
Daily (not Suns):10.20am.
Tickets and details: Book here at EdFringe.com.
Fiona Soe Paing website: www.fionasoepaing.co.uk/
Facebook: @FionaSoePaing
Instagram: @FionaSoePaing
Linktree: @FionaSoePaing.
ENDS
