One of the members of Scottish rock band Teenage Fanclub is among those commissioned for Scotland's leading festival of new music.

 

Francis MacDonald, the drummer of Teenage Fanclub, is one of six composers who have collaborated to make a new piece for this year's Sound festival, which takes place in the north east of Scotland from October 22 to November 9.

The 11th running of the festival will also feature a co-commission with Glasgow's lauded A Play, A Pie and a Pint - a new opera by Pippa Murphy - as well as work from France, Norway and Australia.

Australia's Griffyn Ensemble will debut at the festival alongside the Red Note Ensemble performing the world premiere of Northern Skies by James Clapperton.

The joint concert of the new work by the Scottish composer will open the 2015 Festival.

Pippa Murphy's opera is called The Wakeful Chamber and it explores the "elaborate system of rituals a woman with chronic somniphobia develops to survive the night", with the piece being inspired by the work of Aberdeen's Royal Astronomer, Sir David Gill (1843-1914).

Six contemporary composers including Oliver Searle and MacDonald have collaborated on a single composition, creating You Can't Get There From Here which will be given its first ever performance by Ensemble Thing on 24 October.

The Sound festival controversially missed out on three-year funding from arts body Creative Scotland in 2014, although it subsequently received money from its Open Fund.

Fiona Robertson, the director of the festival, said: "It has been a difficult year for Sound, but we continue to be committed to supporting Scotland's incredibly talented composers and musicians and to giving them the vital opportunity to create and perform new work."

She added: "This year we are looking forward to welcoming Australia's Griffyn Ensemble and Ensemble Alternance for the first time, and welcoming back many sound friends including Pippa Murphy, James Clapperton, Musiques Demesurées, one of our patrons Rohan de Saran with his son Suren, and of course our Associate Ensemble, Red Note."

The Sound festival's patrons are Dame Evelyn Glennie, Sir James MacMillan and Rohan de Saram.