Beth Orton

Beth Orton plays Saint Lukes and the Winged Ox on Saturday 17 October, a Glasgow date on her UK tour. It's a good chance to catch her if you've been following her since the nineties, but it works just as well if you're only coming to her more recent stuff.

Orton is one of those names that carries a fair bit of weight in British music. Back in the nineties, she was credited with pioneering 'folktronica' — that particular blend of acoustic singer-songwriter traditions and electronic beats. Her debut, Trailer Park (1996), and its follow-up, Central Reservation (1999), won her critical devotion and a BRIT Award for Best British Female. For a long time, that was the sound people associated with her: the guitar-led folk and the trip-hop influence that sat somewhere between the singer-songwriter world and the dancefloor.

In recent years, though, she's moved into a different creative phase. Her 2022 album Weather Alive was self-produced and marked a shift towards more experimental, piano-led arrangements. It received universal acclaim and moved her away from the guitar-heavy folk of her early career and towards more textured, atmospheric, and rhythmically complex soundscapes. If you're familiar with her older records, this is the version of her that's been taking shape lately — less about the acoustic guitar and more about the piano and the space around it.

So, the set should draw from both ends of that. You'll get the songs that made her a name in the nineties alongside the newer, more atmospheric material from Weather Alive. It's a Glasgow date on her UK tour, and the venue is Saint Lukes and the Winged Ox, 17 Bain Street, Glasgow East End G40 2JZ. Saturday 17 October.