Losing Sleep - winning friends

Edwyn Collins has written his first new album since suffering a stroke in 2005.

The former Orange Juice frontman has collaborated with members of Franz Ferdinand, the Magic Numbers and the Cribs for Losing Sleep, due on September 13.

Recording the album has been a slow process. Work began in November 2008, three and a half years after Collins suffered two major cerebral haemorrhages, requiring months of rehabilitation. While the Scottish singer released an album in 2007, Home Again, it had almost been finished before Collins suffered his strokes. Losing Sleep, his seventh solo album, is the first to be fully written and recorded since the illness.

For his new LP, Collins enlisted a star-studded cast of musicians. The album's co-writers include Franz Ferdinand's Alex Kapranos and Nick McCarthy, Magic Numbers frontman Romeo Stodart, the Cribs' Ryan Harman, Brooklyn band the Drums, and former Smiths guitarist Johnny Marr. Aztec Camera's Roddy Frame also appears. Work has apparently continued until the last minute: Collins tweeted about recording with Marr as recently as last week. The album was mastered at London's West Heath Studios, with Collins' long-time collaborator Sebastian Lewsley.

Before Losing Sleep is released, Collins will play three solo gigs. Following an acoustic set at the Inverness Book festival, he will play the End of the Road festival and London's Queen Elizabeth Hall.