The longlist for the 2013 Scottish Album of the Year Award

Launched by the Scottish Music Industry Association last year, the SAY Award aims to promote and reward Scotland's most outstanding albums, regardless of genre or commercial scale. This year's eclectic long-list, determined by 100 nominators from across the music and arts community, focuses on the calendar year of 2012.

And so it is that Aberdeenshire soul-pop superstar Emeli Sande's debut, Our Version of Events (the UK's biggest-selling album of 2012), is pitched alongside tropical-house and Afro-Latin grooves from Glasgow tech-conjurer Auntie Flo (Future Rhythm Machine); contemporary fiddle music from Inverness composer and Wolfstone founder Duncan Chisholm with Affric; incendiary scuzz-rock from Glasgow tearaways PAWS (long-listed for their debut, Cokefloat!); day-glo Glasgow ultra-pop from Miaoux Miaoux's machine-delight, Light of the North; and psychedelic collage-rock from Django Django – a band who hail from Edinburgh-via-Fife-via-London (and outer space).

As with last year, many of 2013's SAY long-listed artists are signed to Scottish independent labels, including Edinburgh hip-hop champions Stanley Odd, nominated for their second album, Reject (Circular); Auld Reekie alt-folk firebrands Meursault, whose sophomore LP Something for the Weakened was released by DIY imprint Song, By Toad; Falkirk art-pop voyager Human Don't Be Angry (Chemikal Underground), alias ex-Arab Strap melodist Malcolm Middleton (whose former band-mate, Aidan Moffat, bagged the SAY Award with Bill Wells last year); and euphoric Glasgow electro-gods Errors, whose Have Some Faith in Magic was released via Mogwai's Rock Action label.

Sublime flamenco-punk RM Hubbert is long-listed for 13 Lost and Found, a unique and exceptional album that underscores the SAY Award's recurring themes of collaboration (it features Alex Kapranos, Hanna Tuulikki, Aidan Moffat and Emma Pollock, among others) and reflection: the album charts Glasgow's DIY pop history through musical relationships, from Hubbert's tenure in 90s post-rock favourites El Hombre Trajeado, to the present day. In doing so, it highlights the enduring importance of our grassroots and independent communities which are, says Hubbert, "essential" to our cultural identity.

"We have a long history of self-sufficiency in Scotland within and out-with the arts, and this self-determinism allows us to create freely and honestly," Hubbert offers. He also champions the SAY Award's democratic ethos. "It's one of the aspects I really like – there's no barrier to entry, no fees to be paid. If you released a good album, regardless of whether it had a multi-million pound advertising campaign or put something up on the internet yourself, you have an equal chance. And it feels surprisingly good to be long-listed when it's from such a wide-ranging group of nominators."

Another objective of the SAY Award is to celebrate, and reassert, the value of the album as an art-form – to spotlight Hubbert's fascinating narratives, and those of other long-listed artists like Paul Buchanan's stunning urban eulogy, Mid-Air (the solo debut from the former Blue Nile frontman); the ambient jazz and psychedelic electronica of fellow Glasgow artist Dam Mantle's Brothers Fowl; or the gorgeous folk-pop pursuits of Race The Loser, from Lau.

Glasgow saxophonist Konrad Wiszniewski and pianist Euan Stevenson, long-listed for their genre-defying jazz collaboration, New Focus, call their nomination "a triumph" and welcome the SAY Award's promotion of the LP as a work of art.

"In my experience, producing an album is an enormous amount of work and a great achievement," says Stevenson. "I hope people don't lose sight of that concept, because I think there's something special about listening to an album. If it's good, you feel like you've gone on a journey, and that it's informed you, and enlivened you, in some sort of positive way."

While largely known as jazz musicians, Wiszniewski and Stevenson's collaboration takes a historic text as its departure point – Stan Getz's 1961 classic suite, Focus – and re-animates it in a contemporary context that embraces classical music (RSNO strings feature), cinematic sound-tracks, Scottish folk inflections, and pop.

Wiszniewski nods. "There's one tune I wrote called For Ray and, well, I love Michael Jackson, he's a big hero of mine, so there's a bit in it where I was thinking, 'man, this would sound really cool with a Michael Jackson bass-line', and we tried it. It's a pure 70s funk bass-line in the middle of this jazzy tune, but it actually works," he laughs.

Another long-listed artist, Dumfries super-producer Calvin Harris, conquered Michael Jackson's chart record earlier this week, when his SAY-nominated 18 Months album became the first-ever to spawn eight Top 10 hits (thus beating Jacko's previous seven, for Bad).

When The Herald announced the inaugural SAY Award last year, we spoke to Banknock folk artist Karine Polwart, who championed its potential for breaking down genre barriers, and opening ears to new music.

Twelve months on, Polwart's exquisite fifth album, Traces, is long-listed, and her enduring collaborative approach connects several nominated works. Traces was produced by Iain Cook of hymnal post-rock diviners The Unwinding Hours, who are long-listed for their glorious opus, Afterlives; Polwart previously collaborated with James Graham of thrilling Kilsyth alt-rockers The Twilight Sad, nominated for No One Can Ever Know; while Sarah Hayes of chamber-pop ensemble Admiral Fallow – whose Tree Bursts In Snow is on the long-list – also played on Polwart's album. Traces becomes less an album title; more an illustration of the collective ethos and relationships that delineate our Scottish pop landscape.

"I think there's a curiosity on the Scottish music scene, and association with other artists is a big part of how people find out about music," says Polwart. "You begin to look at all the lineages and networks, and it's fascinating. There could be an accusation that it's clique-ish, but I think it's the opposite, I think that's how it all works – by connection and threads."

Polwart also believes that our Scottish music infrastructure – festivals, promoters, shops, labels and media – engenders a confidence in creating art, and albums, that while never parochial, are Scottish at heart. "If you speak to where you're from, sometimes that's the best way to speak louder," she says. "You can write about things that are on your doorstep, and that can add all the detail and colour and character and everything that makes it stand out from other things that are trying desperately hard to be universal, to speak to everybody.

"That's a thing I take great heart from in a lot of the music that gets created here," Polwart continues. "It's okay to mention local places, and local stories, and to sing in your own accent, and nothing typifies that better than last year's SAY Award winners, Aidan Moffat and Bill Wells – that album's just beautiful."

This year looks set to follow suit.

The SAY Award shortlist, featuring 10 of these albums, will be announced on May 30, (with the final winner announced on June 20). Nine of these will be chosen by a judging panel; one will be selected by public vote on May 27. For more details, see: www.sayaward.com

The SAY Award is supported by Creative Scotland, Dewar's, music licensing organisation PPL, Clyde Gateway and the Sunday Herald.