The unlikely formation of Silver Moth sounds like a pitch for a reality TV show or maybe even a badly told joke. What do you get if you take seven (almost) strangers from across the UK – including Stuart Braithwaite from Mogwai – and put them on an Outer Hebridean island for a week? The answer is the album Black Bay, a stunning, post-rock, six-track odyssey out on the Bella Union imprint. As a punchline, it’s disappointing, though the album itself is anything but.
Before we discuss the making of this mystical work of wonder, we need to go back to April 2021 where Braithwaite, his wife Elisabeth Elektra and members of Abrasive Trees, Burning House and Prosthetic Head are assembled in a car park at Ullapool, Stornoway, looking for adventure. Britain is just starting to emerge
