Scottish guitarist RM Hubbert has teamed up with a host of top songstresses for his new album – even though he didn’t know what they were doing.

Hubby previously collaborated with other musicians on Thirteen Lost And Found, which won 2013’s Scottish Album of the Year prize.

For new release Telling The Trees he got in touch with various singers he admired and sent them ideas by email, then let them interpret the songs however they wanted.

“Once someone agreed to take part I would go away, binge on their music and then send them a piece of music I’d written,” explains Hubby, who launches the album at the School of Art tomorrow.

“I asked them to do whatever they wanted with it and I didn’t want them to consult me because I wanted an honest, unfiltered reaction to it.

“It was strange at first – there was a mix of excitement and terror when an email arrived from one of them with an attachment. I was writing these songs with them in mind, so I had ideas as to what they’d do with it, but when it came back not one song was like what I’d expected.”

The collaborators Hubby pulled in are an impressive bunch, ranging from fellow SAY Award winner Kathryn Joseph and folk singer Karine Polwart to Helen Marnie of synth act Ladytron and American songbird Eleanor Friedberger.

The results are impressively cohesive, given that the styles vary from spoken-word tracks to stripped back melodies and electropop flavoured beats, and Hubby sees the record as being the mirror image to Thirteen Lost And Found.

“I get more out of making an album than anything else after it, so I don’t want to repeat myself,” he explains.

“I thought I’ve done a collaborative album before, but let’s do it as differently as we can and see what that’s like. So while 13 Lost and Found was about reconnecting with old friends and working with people I knew well, this was about a peak into artists heads who I didn’t know.”

Another example of the mirror imagery lies in the gender of the acts performing. Nearly everyone on Thirteen Lost And Found was male, so this time it’s an all-female line-up.

“It didn’t start as anything deliberate, it just so happened that everyone I wanted to work with was a woman,” he says.

“Then I started to think about the album as a mirror to Thirteen, and there were only three women on there, which is pretty shameful. So it’s part of that mirror – there’s only three men playing on Telling The Trees.

“I think it’s a shame that working with women is still so notable. The reason they’re on the album is because they’re amazing artists, and then it fitted the overarching theme to it. I’m a big advocate of equal rights, although I’m a white middle aged, middle class man, so I’m part of the problem, too.”

Now based in Troon but originally from Paisley, Hubby has long been a well known figure on the Scottish music scene from his days with bands like El Hombre Trajaedo to the critically acclaimed Ampersand trilogy of records in recent years (of which Thirteen Lost & Found was the middle instalment).

A prolific writer, he’s already working on another record with Aidan Moffat, with a ‘noisier’ project also in the pipeline, but tomorrow’s album launch is the most pressing priority.

“I’m excited and terrified about the show,” he chuckles.

“I did have it in mind that we could do it all live this time, which was something we couldn’t do with Thirteen Lost and Found. There might be a little less chat onstage from me as there’s other people onstage, but there’s new stories to tell, too. Although my girlfriend’s parents are coming, so there might be less swearing…”

RM Hubbert, School of Art, tomorrow, £15, 7pm