Pictish Trail (solo)
Tuesday 28th October 2025
These intimate performances will see Lynch in raw, exploratory mode, armed with an acoustic guitar, a sampler, and a warped imagination.
Overview
Pictish Trail, AKA Johnny Lynch, has just completed work on a brand-new album — a sticky, shimmering swirl of sound and slime (both metaphorical and literal). To celebrate, he’s embarking on a series of special solo shows, previewing songs from the forthcoming release. These intimate performances will see Lynch in raw, exploratory mode, armed with an acoustic guitar, a sampler, and a warped imagination — expect tenderness, weirdness, and a generous dollop of goo.
Based on the Isle of Eigg in the Scottish Hebrides, Pictish Trail is known for his wildly inventive electro-acoustic psych-pop. His 2022 album Island Family, his third for London’s Fire Records, drew acclaim from The Observer, The Times, Mojo, Uncut, Loud & Quiet, and BBC 6 Music.
It was followed in autumn 2024 by Follow Footsteps — an EP of reworked Island Family tracks released via his own Lost Map Records, in conjunction with Fire. Recasting the euphoric-bucolic psychedelia of ‘Island Family’, ‘Melody Something’ and ‘Nuclear Sunflower Swamp’ through a softer filter — and complemented by a pair of incidental instrumentals — Lynch discovered delicately kaleidoscopic new resonance in the material.
SUPPORT ACT
The wonderful Sulka will now be joining Pictish Trail to play a stripped back show in Tolbooth’s Attic on Tuesday 28th October.
Sulka is the DIY songwriting/recording project of Lukas Clasen, whose style blends hushed intimate vocals, warped lo-fi production and dynamic mood changes. Originating from Bridge of Allan, in 2021 Sulka joined the Lost Map Records collective with his well received LP ‘Take Care’, gaining him a wider listenership and BBC radio play by the likes of Vic Galloway and Steve Lamacq. Snack magazine chose the lead single ‘Fear It’ as one of their top Scottish singles of the year. Since then, the project has expanded to involve a four-piece band and has enlisted the help of producer Chris McCrory (Catholic Action, Walt Disco) on their follow-up record ‘Distractions’, released in September 2023. This marked a departure from the bedroom aesthetic of earlier releases in an effort to capture the dynamics of the live band.
