LOUISE McCORKINDALE & VITALIY TKACHUK
About LOUISE McCORKINDALE:
Louise McCorkindale came to songwriting late in life, as the singer and co-writer in Aberdeen duo Only A Ghost, and has been collaborating with Vitaliy Tkachuk on her own songs over the last four years. The result is an almost gothic, distinctly European fusion of classical, folk and electronic elements, reflecting the timeless and intimate nature of the songs, which explore universal themes with minimal production. Louise attributes her style to the long north-eastern winters and being at an age when contemplating one’s own mortality is unavoidable. Her songs have been described as “brooding and evocative” with “crystal vocals with sparse and gloriously understated acoustic guitarwork by Vitaliy” (John Clarkson at Pennyblackmusic). Her songs are poetic, personal, and philosophical, reflecting on the human condition through gentle melodic lines and chord progressions that help tell the story. The lyrics are cinematic, yet intimate, occasionally expressing a slightly macabre sense of humour. Louise still writes most of her songs on an entry-level tenor ukulele that was a birthday gift from her family ten years ago. Her songwriting heroes include Mary Gauthier, and Loudon Wainwright III. Her work has been described as reminiscent of Leonard Cohen and Vashti Bunyan and will be of particular interest to fans of Linda Perhacs, Margo Guryan and Sibylle Baier.
About VITALIY TKACHUK:
Vitaliy Tkachuk is an Odesa-based guitarist, multi-instrumentalist, composer, and producer. At home in any genre, from metal to classical, he specialises in improvisation and jazz and has a particular talent for seamlessly and tastefully blending genres, as can be heard on his stunning solo guitar album “Life On Strings”. On “Songs From The Wild Sea’s Edge” he has balanced the darker aspects of the songs with beautiful rhythm tracks and emotional solos, and jokingly describes the style as “sad but beautiful”. Vitaliy fluently improvises in almost every genre (from classical to rock to ECM), but his first love is jazz, and this can be heard on the album, particularly on the dreamily expressive “Vivo Sohando” and the darkly ethereal “Willow”. His unique fusion of genres and cultures imbues this indie-folk album with a highly listenable and unique, gently gothic, character. His musical heroes include the masters of ECM, and Robert Fripp.
NEW SINGLE AND ALBUM RELEASES:
Stereogram Recordings are delighted to announce the February 20th release of “My Only Sorrow”, the new single from Louise McCorkindale and Vitaliy Tkachuk. It will be available to download from the Stereogram Bandcamp site as well as stream from all the usual sites.
“My Only Sorrow” is a fantasy of grace and agency about how life will end. The track is the lead single from the themed collection of songs which make up Louise and Vitaliy’s forthcoming debut album, “Songs From The Wild Sea’s Edge”, which will be released on March 20th 2026.
We don’t talk about it, but there comes a time when we all have to face it: how we live with our own mortality and with what we have lost. On this album, Aberdonian singer-songwriter Louise McCorkindale invites the listener into her personal reflections on this theme, through twelve songs, ranging from the wry to the profound, beautifully brought to life by producer and multi-instrumentalist, Vitaliy Tkachuk.
This album could only have been made in the 21st Century. Louise and Vitaliy have never met in person, but a chance meeting in an online recording session was a joining of musical souls which led to an EP (“Her Art” in 2023), a couple of singles (“Desperate Ways” in 2024, and “Water And Stone” in 2025), and now this album.
Louise: “Vitaliy’s ability to tune into the emotional essence of a song and turn it into music that perfectly expresses that essence often moved me to tears in our recording sessions. It feels like he can read my musical soul and then express it in ways that are way beyond what I could ever imagine. Working together is an absolute joy.”
Because of the bombing of Ukraine, recording sessions were sometimes brought to an abrupt halt when Vitaliy and his family had to take refuge in the stairwell, or when the power was cut. Vitaliy has described how working on these songs, and other musical projects (e.g. his video “My Odesa” and the album “Frippery”), was an important element in being able to maintain a sense of normality and humanity in such inhumane conditions.
The title of the album is taken from the track “The Wild Sea’s Edge”, however Louise discovered recently, on re-reading an unpublished poem of her father’s (“Reflections From the Dark” by Bill McCorkindale), that the exact phrase occurs in one of its stanzas in a context that feels quite apt:
and the woman is blind who stands
at a rail by the wild sea’s edge
arranging her sightlessness
against the gale
ABOUT THE ALBUM ARTWORK:
The original artwork, “Aberdeen Bay”, by Scottish artist Phil Duthie, is an oil painting on a canvas 23” by 40”. Louise explains how it came to be on the cover of “Songs From The Wild Sea’s Edge”: “I came across Phil’s paintings through his Instagram account during lockdown, where he posted a new painting each day, many of them seascapes, and they created a much appreciated moment of colour for me in what were otherwise quite dreary days. The paintings look almost abstract, but at the same time are incredibly evocative of the landscapes and seascapes they depict. The way Phil uses colour to evoke the essence of a place, particularly its natural light, is stunning. When I was thinking about artwork for the album, I was looking through Phil’s website, which has on display many beautiful seascapes, but I was startled to come across one that immediately conjured up in me the physical feeling of being on Aberdeen beach, the feeling that was in my mind when I was writing the final verse of “The Wild Sea’s Edge”. I was even more startled when I looked closer and saw the title of the painting! It’s an incredible piece of art, to be able to induce the unique physical feeling of the place. Lucky coincidences continued when I talked to Jeremy from Stereogram about the painting, as it turned out that Jeremy and Phil know each other from their Aberdeen days. Phil very generously agreed to us having “Aberdeen Bay” on the album. It felt like the closing of a circle, and I will forever be grateful to him for sharing his art with us.”
CREDITS:
Louise McCorkindale: Vocals, ukelele and songwriting
Vitaliy Tkachuk: Guitars, production, mixing and mastering.
Plus:
Adam Alesi: Drums
Itaiguara Brandão: Electric bass
João Paulo Drumond: Latin percussion
Mike Fonte: Ukelele
Felipe Ribeiro: Piano and keyboards
Nuno Silva: Dulcimer
Ben Trigg: Cello
Artwork and detail from “Aberdeen Bay” by Phil Duthie
Design: Jeremy Thoms
Louise McCorkindale photo by James Murison
Vitaliy Tkachuk photo by Olga Tkachuk