His background is illustrious, although not without its quirks. Armstrong moved from Glasgow to London in his late teens. There he studied composing at the Royal Academy of Music (studies that he later resumed at the Scottish Arts Council). Nevertheless, Armstrong grew up jamming in bands. Incredibly, he was even a member of Texas back in the days of "I Don't Want A Lover".

Now the prizing-winning composer has finally issued his own album, "The Space Between Us", on Massive Attack's fledgling label, "Melankolic" (his release follows reggae legend Horace Andy's Best Of-styled compilation, "Skylarking: Volume 1", and Alpha's "Come From Heaven"). Not surprisingly perhaps, it's a lush, emotive affair -- on an almost cinematic, epic scale. Armstrong admits that he hadn't even considered a solo album until Massive Attack offered him a deal. And, as it happens, he'd already started recording it when "Romeo + Juliet" came along.

Some three months later, though, he re-emerged -- more fired-up than ever. 'In a way it's quite a personal album,' Armstrong says, 'so it's nice that other people like it.'

Personal in an abstract kind of way, yes. His title was actually inspired by the novel New York Stories. 'As a kid you try to communicate with your parents, and then, when you leave home, you try to communicate with other people,' Armstrong explains. 'It just seems that your whole life is engaged in trying to bridge the gaps.' For him, music -- and pointedly his own -- seems to convey what can't be expressed normally in language. Fittingly perhaps, "Space" comprises Armstrong's full-on orchestral takes of the two most intangible moments on Massive Attack's "Protection" LP -- "Weather Storm" and "Sly". What's more, there is also a soundbite from "Romeo + Juliet" in the wistful Balcony Scene. Adding another dimension entirely are two vocal tracks,

for which Armstrong brought in a couple of his fellow Scots. Ethereal Cocteau Twin, Elizabeth Fraser, elevates "This Love", while Paul Buchanan puts his melancholic cords to his own "Blue Nile" classic, "Let's Go Out Tonight". 'The album was going to be purely instrumental,' Armstrong reveals, 'but I just felt that it was almost getting to the point where it seemed artificial not to use a voice. I was pitching this discipline on myself.'

The sales of "Titanic" have proven that orchestra-based albums are viable. But whereas this particular soundtrack's chart-storming success can be put down to the film's current popularity, Armstrong's orchestral project stands on its own merits. He regards the album as a continuation of his work on "Romeo + Juliet", which is, incidentally, also more substantial than a mere box office souvenir.

Not that Armstrong himself is preoccupied with making a good return

on his long-player. 'I don't really view it as a commercial record,' he says. 'I see it as falling in between the two worlds. It really belongs to a whole new area -- as a pop record it's hard to define.' In the 1990s the gulf that once existed between high and Popular Culture is but a crack. Certainly, Armstrong doesn't perceive any great divide between the worlds of classical and pop. Even in his potentially stuffy academy there were a few windows open to popular forms. 'At college you could study things like film music and jazz, so in a way it wasn't separated as such. But the one thing I did learn in college was orchestration, which I'm very grateful for.' And so is the rest of the world -- ever the more so since Armstrong arranged the strings for Madonna's breathtaking "Frozen".

In Scotland (where he's since returned) Armstrong still spends much of his time working as a classical composer with his pieces performed by the Scottish Chamber Orchestra.

In addition he composes music for independent films, television productions, and theatre. 'Because they're not so international they don't get any attention,' he says. 'I don't just want to do commercial things. I like to do things that I can learn from as well.' However, even this facet of Armstrong's career may soon change, as he recently scored a publishing deal for his classical works.

Armstrong has found that his pop collaborators have almost always given him space. 'With the Madonna stuff, I always just write it in Scotland and then I either go out there or send it over, so nobody actually says anything -- it's weird. One of the reasons I really like working with Nellee is that he just lets you do your own thing.'

And Armstrong does like to go his own way. It is for this very reason that he didn't see a future for himself in Texas.

'I was a member of Texas at the start,' he recalls, 'but by time we did the first album I thought to myself, "This really isn't quite what I fancy doing with my life." And so I just left. We've stayed in contact and I've helped them out with a few of their albums -- in terms of just playing some keyboards for them -- but it was all just a bit too straight ahead for me. I wanted to explore more abstract avenues.'

Regardless, Armstrong does like the group's tie-up with the Wu-Tang Clan on their "Say What You Want" remix -- ironically it's one of the most leftfield collaborations in recent pop history.

'That's the sort of thing that they should have done from the beginning,' he laughs, promising to check out the East Coast rap crew's landmark "Forever" album, which boasts a renegade use of strings.