Audiences across Scotland will be able to experience new music from Rajasthan, Guinea, Japan and France as well as some of the best music from Scotland and the UK as part of the Scottish Arts Council 2005/06 Tune Up series of live music tours.

Eleven bands in total have thus far been awarded funding from the Scottish Arts Council and will perform in venues the length and breadth of Scotland ranging from well known and established concert halls and theatres to smaller venues such as village halls, community centres and schools.

There is a strong international element to many of this year’s tours and audiences in Scotland will be able to enjoy new world music from leading Guinean musician BA Cissoko; Rajasthan’s Jaipur Kawa Brass Band, French-based jazz artist Renauld Garcia Fons; and three of Japan’s top contemporary acts, who will be performing with Scottish musician Bill Wells.

The line up also includes top Scottish musicians including trumpeter and composer Colin Steele’s Stramash, (Colin Steele won album of the Year at the 2004 BBC Radio 3 Jazz Awards); the Unusual Suspects – a big band that includes many of the top players of the Scottish folk and jazz scene led by David Milligan and Corrina Hewat; a bold new programme by the Hebrides Ensemble; Shetlander Chris Stout’s Quintet will join leading Irish musician John McSherry’s group ‘At First Light’ for a unique double bill featuring fiddle and uilleann pipes respectively; and a tour involving Trashcan Sinatras, Hobotalk and Roddy Hart, all of whom have performed at the prestigious South by South West music festival in Austin, Texas.

Other tours include a 25-date tour with Martin Taylor, Dominic Miller and Neil Stacey - three of the most gifted British guitarists of the past decade, and a Scottish tour of experimental musicians Pauline Oliveros, Akio Suzuki, John Butcher and Toshimaru Nakamur in unusual performance settings.

Tune Up was established by the Scottish Arts Council in 2003 and provides funding to top musicians and artists to perform across Scotland with particular emphasis on including locations that do not usually benefit from a varied range of high quality live music. Over the past two years, more than 20 bands have performed almost 200 gigs in more than 50 different venues throughout Scotland.

Jim Tough, Head of Arts at the Scottish Arts Council, says: ‘It is fantastic for Scottish audiences that there is such a strong line up for this year’s Tune Up programme. Tune Up is all about bringing a rich and diverse range of music to Scottish audiences wherever they live and the combination of international acts that have never performed in Scotland with established and well known Scottish performers mean there really is something there for everyone.’

The dates and venues of most tours have still to be confirmed, but will take place between August 2005 through to July 2006. Regular updates will be posted on the web-site: www.tuneup.org.uk