Afro Celt Soundsystem at TFF.Rudolstadt 2010. L.t.R: Johnny Kalsi, Simon Emmerson, Iarla Ó Lionáird, Ian Markin, N´Faly Kouyate, Emer Mayock, James McNally, Moussa Sissokho.
Afro Celt Sound System are a European and African group who fuse electronic music with traditional Gaelic and West African music. Afro Celt Sound System were formed in 1995 by producer-guitarist Simon Emmerson, and feature a wide range of guest artists.[3] In 2003, they temporarily changed their name to Afrocelts before reverting to their original name.
Their albums have been released through Peter Gabriel's Real World Records,[4] and they have frequently performed at WOMAD festivals worldwide. Their sales on the label are exceeded only by Gabriel himself.[citation needed] Their recording contract with Real World was for five albums, of which Volume 5: Anatomic was the last.[5]
After a number of festival dates in 2007, the band went on hiatus. In 2010, they regrouped to play a number of shows (including a return to WOMAD),[6] releasing a re-mastered retrospective titled Capture.[7]
On 20 May 2014, Afro Celt Sound System announced the release of the album Born.[8] In January 2016, a posting to that website revealed that due to a dispute with Emmerson, who announced his departure from the band in 2015, there were two active versions of the band, a version led by Emmerson and a separate line-up headed by James McNally and Martin Russell. Emmerson's version of the band released the album The Source in 2016.[9] The dispute ended on 21 December 2016, with an announcement on social media.
The band released their seventh studio album, Flight, on 23 November 2018.[10][11][12]
Formation
The inspiration behind the project dates back to 1991, when Simon Emmerson, a Grammy Award-nominated British producer and guitarist, collaborated with Afro-pop star Baaba Maal. While making an album with Maal in Senegal, Emmerson was struck by the similarity between one African melody and a traditional Irish air. Back in London, Irish musician Davy Spillane told Emmerson about a belief that nomadic Celts lived in Africa or India before they migrated to Western Europe. Whether or not the theory was true, Emmerson was intrigued by the two regions' musical affinities.
In an experiment that would prove successful, Emmerson brought two members of Baaba Maal's band together with traditional Irish musicians to see what kind of music the two groups would create. Adding a dash of modern sound, Emmerson also brought in English dance mixers for an electronic beat. "People thought I was mad when I touted the idea," Emmerson told Jim Carroll of The Irish Times. "At the time, I was out of favour with the London club scene. I was broke and on income support but the success was extraordinary".[13]
Career
Jamming in the studios at Real World, musician Peter Gabriel's recording facilities in Wiltshire, England, the group of musicians recorded the basis of their first album in one week. This album, Volume 1: Sound Magic, was released by Real World Records in 1996, and marked the debut of the Afro Celt Sound System.[14]
"Prior to that first album being made, none of us knew if it would work," musician James McNally told Larry Katz of the Boston Herald. "We were strangers who didn't even speak the same language. But we were bowled over by this communication that took place beyond language."[full citation needed] McNally, who grew up second-generation Irish in London, played whistles, keyboards, piano, bodhran, and bamboo flute.
Sound Magic has now sold over 300,000 copies. The band performed at festivals, raves, and dance clubs and regularly included two African musicians, Moussa Sissokho on talking drum and djembe and N'Faly Kouyate on vocals, kora and balafon.
Just as the second album was getting off the ground, one of the group's core musicians, 27-year-old keyboardist Jo Bruce, (son of Cream bass player Jack Bruce), died suddenly of an asthma attack.[14] The band was devastated, and the album was put on hold. Sinéad O'Connor then collaborated with the band and helped them cope with their loss. "[O'Connor] blew into the studio on a windy November night and blew away again leaving us something incredibly emotional and powerful," McNally told Katz. "We had this track we didn't know what to do with. Sinéad scribbled a few lyrics and bang! She left us completely choked up."[full citation needed] The band used the name of O'Connor's song, "Release", for the title of their album. Volume 2: Release was released in 1999, and by the spring of 2000 it had sold more than half a million copies worldwide. Release is also used as one of the GCSE music set works in the UK that students are required to study for their exam.[15]
In 2000, the group was nominated for a Grammy Award in the Best World Music category. The band, composed at the time of eight members from six countries (the UK, Senegal, Guinea, Ireland, France and Kenya), took pride in its ability to bring people together through music. "We can communicate anywhere at any corner of the planet and feel that we're at home," McNally told Patrick MacDonald of The Seattle Times. "We're breaking down categories of world music and rock music and black music. We leave a door open to communicate with each other's traditions. And it's changed our lives".[full citation needed]
In 2001, the group released Volume 3: Further in Time, which climbed to number one on Billboard's Top World Music Albums chart. Featuring guest spots by Peter Gabriel and Robert Plant, the album also incorporated a heightened African sound. "On the first two records, the pendulum swung more toward the Celtic, London club side of the equation," Emmerson told The Irish Times' Carroll. "For this one, we wanted to have more African vocals and input than we'd done before."[13] Again the Afro Celt Sound System met with success. Chuck Taylor of Billboard praised the album as "a cultural phenomenon that bursts past the traditional boundaries of contemporary music."[full citation needed] The single "When You're Falling", with vocals by Gabriel, became a radio hit in the United States.
In 2003, for the Seed album, they changed their name to Afrocelts. They reverted to the longer band name for their subsequent albums, Pod, a compilation of new mixes of songs from the first four albums, Volume 5: Anatomic (their fifth studio album), and Capture (1995–2010).
They played a number of shows to promote Volume 5: Anatomic in 2006 and summer 2007, ending with a gig in Korea,[16] before taking an extended break to work on side projects, amongst them The Imagined Village featuring Simon Emmerson and Johnny Kalsi. Starting in the summer of 2010, the band performed a series of live shows to promote Capture (1995–2010), released on 6 September 2010 on Real World Records. Further performances continue to the present day, and a new album-in-progress titled Born was announced on their website in 2014. Following the split (see below), Emmerson's version of the band released the album The Source in 2016.
Split
During 2015, the band had split into two formations, one of them including Simon Emmerson, N'Faly Kouyate and Johnny Kalsi, the other one James McNally and Martin Russell. The split was announced on the band's website in January 2016.[17][18] The dispute officially ended with an announcement on social media on 21 December 2016.
Simon Emmerson, James McNally and Martin Russell are pleased to announce that they have been able to set aside their differences and come to an amicable agreement to bring their dispute to an end. Going forward, McNally, Russell and Emmerson have agreed that Emmerson will continue to perform as Afro Celt Sound System and McNally and Russell will work under a new name to be announced in due course. While McNally, Russell and Emmerson will no longer be performing or working together they recognise, and are grateful for each other's contribution to Afro Celt Sound System over the past two decades and will be working with the extensive community of musicians that make up the long standing Afro Celt Sound System family.[19][20]
Members
When Afro Celt Sound System formed in the mid-1990s during the Real World Recording Week, the difference between a guest artist and a band member was virtually non-existent. However, over time, a combination of people became most often associated with the name Afro Celt Sound System (while Volume 5: Anatomic only lists Emmerson, McNally, Ó Lionáird and Russell as regulars). The divided grouping of the band into two versions, both operating under the name Afro Celt Sound System, began in January 2016 and was resolved in December 2016 after McNally and Russell agreed to work under a different name from Emmerson.
Real World Studios is a residential recording studio complex founded by Peter Gabriel and situated in the old Box Mill building in the village of Box, Wiltshire, England, near to the city of Bath. It is closely associated with the Real World Records record label, Real World Publishing, and the WOMAD Festival, whose offices are also based at the complex.
Real World Records is a British record label specializing in world music. It was founded in 1989 by English musician Peter Gabriel and original members of WOMAD. A majority of the works released on Real World Records feature music recorded at Real World Studios, in Box, Wiltshire, England.
N'Faly Kouyate is a Guinean musician. He is a member of the Mandinka ethnic group of West Africa. His father was the griot Konkoba Kabinet Kouyate, who lived in Siguiri, Guinea.
Pina Kollars is an Austrian-born female folk rock singer. She is usually only known as Pina.
Iarla Ó Lionáird is an Irish singer and record producer. He sings in the traditional sean-nós style. He was a member of the Afro Celt Sound System and is a member of the Irish-American supergroup The Gloaming. He has recorded several solo albums for Real World Records. He appeared in the 2015 film Brooklyn singing an a cappella version of the Irish song "Casadh an tSúgáin".
Johnny Kalsi is a British Indian dhol drum performer residing in London. He rose to prominence as a former member of Transglobal Underground and the founder of the Dhol Foundation. He also is a member of the Afro Celt Sound System and The Imagined Village.
Volume 1: Sound Magic is the first album by Afro Celt Sound System.
Volume 2: Release is Afro Celt Sound System's second album, released on 25 January 1999 by Real World Records.
Volume 3: Further in Time is the third studio album from Afro Celt Sound System, released on 19 June 2001 through Real World.
James McNally is a British musician, composer and producer, formerly of the bands Afro Celt Sound System, the Pogues, Storm. and Dingle Spike.
Pod, released May 4, 2004 by Real World Records, is a remix album by Afro Celt Sound System of their first three albums, Volume 1: Sound Magic, Volume 2: Release, and Volume 3: Further in Time, done by members of the band and new artists as well, including some songs previously unavailable. It is also accompanied by a DVD of some music videos and some clips of their live tour.
Witness is the twelfth studio album by British folk duo Show of Hands. The album was recorded in January 2006 at Presshouse Studio, Colyton, Devon, and was produced by Simon Emmerson and Simon ‘Mass’ Massey from the Afro Celts, who helped to incorporate elements of traditional African, ambient and electronic dance music with the duo's characteristic folk style. It was the band's first album in twelve years to use a rhythm section. Lyrically, the album addresses communal and heritage values, and was described by the duo's lead singer Steve Knightley as a "cinematic style journey of the West Country." The album features unofficial third member Miranda Sykes on ten of its twelve tracks.
Collaborations is a compilation album released by Irish singer Sinéad O'Connor in 2005. The album contains songs recorded throughout O'Connor's career on which she collaborated with a variety of artists, spanning several different genres of music. Many of these tracks appeared on the albums of the artists with whom O'Connor performs. The tracks "Empire" and "Heroine" also appear on So Far... The Best of Sinéad O'Connor, released in 1997. One track - "Monkey in Winter" - had never been never released on CD before, and was previously released as B-side on a 12" only.
Simon Emmerson was an English musician and record producer. He founded the bands Working Week, Weekend, and Afro Celt Sound System.
Gangs of New York: Music from the Miramax Motion Picture is a soundtrack album for the 2002 film, Gangs of New York. The score is by Howard Shore. The rest of the selections are a mix of contemporary pop and world music compositions and tunes from mid-nineteenth century Ireland.
Ronan Browne is an Irish musician and composer who plays the Irish pipes. He plays and sings with the band Cran, and also played in a 40-year duet with Peter O'Loughlin. He was the original piper with both Riverdance and the Afro Celt Sound System.
Martin Russell is an English recording engineer, record producer, composer, and musician. He has been a core member of the music group Afro Celt Sound System since the recording of the first album Volume 1: Sound Magic in mid-1995, and has twice been nominated for a Grammy Award. As of 2010, the recorded output of the group has so far been exclusively released by Peter Gabriel's Real World Records.. The group recorded and released three more albums Seed, Pod, and Volume 5: Anatomic. Russell has written film music for several feature films, including Hotel Rwanda and the Lebanese film Bosta.
The Imagined Village is a folk music project founded by Simon Emmerson of Afro Celt Sound System. It is intended to produce modern folk music that represented modern multiculturalism in the United Kingdom and as such, featured musicians from a wide variety of ethnic and cultural backgrounds. The name of the project came from the 1993 book The Imagined Village by Georgina Boyes.
The Bucks were a band who played music based largely on Irish folk, touring briefly and recording and releasing one album for WEA Records in 1994. While remaining obscure, the band was formed by well-known Irish musicians Ron Kavana and Terry Woods. Paddy Keenan played pipes. James McNally was also a member, as were several members of Kavana's primary group, The Alias Band.
"When You're Falling" is a song by world music group Afro Celt Sound System, released as the first single from the band's third studio album Volume 3: Further in Time. The song features vocals from British singer Peter Gabriel.
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