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Peatbog Faeries | |
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Background information | |
Origin | Isle of Skye, Scotland |
Genres | Celtic fusion, experimental |
Years active | 1994–present |
Labels | Peatbog Records (2003−present) Greentrax Recordings (1994−2002) |
Members |
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Past members |
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Website | www |
The Peatbog Faeries are a largely instrumental Celtic fusion band. Formed in 1991, they are based in Dunvegan on the Isle of Skye, Scotland. [1]
Their music embodies many styles and influences, including folk, electronica, African pop, rock and jazz, although their main influence is traditional Celtic music. The band's unique sound is created through a mix of programmed effects and traditional Celtic arrangements, played on bagpipes, fiddles, and whistles.
The band have twice won "Live Band of the Year" at the Scottish Traditional Music Awards and were nominated for "Live Band of the Year" at the BBC Radio 2 folk awards.
The Peatbog Faeries formed in 1991. They recorded and released their debut album Mellowosity in 1996 on Greentrax Recordings. [2] Two years later they signed to a New York label and recorded their second album, Faerie Stories . Due to problems at the record company the CD was not released for a further two years.
For their third album the band set up their own label, Peatbog Records. On the label, they released Welcome to Dun Vegas in 2003. The album introduced a small amount of vocals. In 2005, they released Croftwork , which saw the first appearance of brass instruments on an album. These have been a regular feature of the band's albums and live performances ever since.
The band toured in 2008, recording a series of gigs and subsequently released their first live album, Live , made up of two of these performances. [3] The band's seventh studio album, Dust, was released in August 2011.
In 2010, they were inducted into the Hebridean Celtic Festival’s hall of fame. [4]
The Peatbog Faeries released their latest album “Live @ 25” in 2017 to mark their 25th anniversary.
The band's genre is Celtic fusion. The band's 2001 Faerie Stories offered a completely different style of Celtic fusion. Trance music became the main theme of the album, as well as electronic dance music and reggae at times. Because of the electronic elements in the band's sound, their sound was once termed "acid croft". [5]
The band's third album, Welcome to Dun Vegas , was a lot less Celtic at times, with bagpipes absent in a few of the songs, and the overall genre was alternative rock, returning to that of Mellowosity. The band used a new type of Celtic fusion for Croftwork , matching reggae, electronic dance music, alternative rock, and brass, with saxophones appearing in many of its songs. What Men Deserve to Lose is similar to Croftwork, with the brass roots returning, but with more alternative rock audible towards the end of the album. [6]
A review of Blackhouse said the album draws "inspirations from everywhere. Jazz, funk, reggae and dance rub shoulders with special effects and synths, tradition combines with visions, contemporary rocks along with heritage." [7]
Cornwall is a Celtic nation with a long musical history. Strengthened by a series of 20th century revivals, traditional folk music has a popular following. It is accompanied by traditions of pipers, brass and silver bands, male voice choirs, classical, electronic and popular music.
Battlefield Band is a Scottish traditional music group. Founded in Glasgow in 1969, they have released over 30 albums and undergone many changes of lineup. As of 2010, none of the original founders remain in the band.
Greentrax Recordings are a Scottish record label that specialises in Scottish traditional music.
During the decade of the 2000s many Scottish bands and individual performers made recordings in the rock, Scottish folk, Celtic fusion, and other genres. Scottish music received support from two public bodies: the Scottish Arts Council and Scottish Enterprise. Scotland's largest city Glasgow was described by Time magazine in 2004 as "Europe's capital of rock music", and became a UNESCO City of Music in 2008. The decade brought the deaths of Scottish musicians Kirsty MacColl and Martyn Bennett.
Celtic fusion is an umbrella term for any modern music which incorporates influences considered "Celtic", or Celtic music which incorporates modern music. It is a syncretic musical tradition which borrows freely from the perceived "Celtic" musical traditions of all the Celtic nations, as well as from all styles of popular music, it is thus sometimes associated with the Pan-Celtic movement. Celtic fusion may or may not include authentic traditional music from any one tradition under the Celtic umbrella, but its common characteristic is the inspiration by Celtic identity.
Seven Nations is a Celtic rock band that formed in New York City in 1993. The name comes from the seven Celtic nations, including Scotland, Ireland, Wales, Brittany, Cornwall, the Isle of Man, and Galicia. The band tours extensively and has played in many diverse venues, from small bars to concert halls. They were previously known as Clan Na Gael, but lost that name due to a trademark dispute. At just that time, they got a huge sponsor, allowing them expanded notoriety.
Salsa Celtica are a Scottish group that plays a fusion of salsa music with traditional Scottish instruments, including elements of folk and jazz.
The Scots Trad Music Awards or Na Trads were founded in 2003 by Simon Thoumire to celebrate Scotland's traditional music in all its forms and create a high profile opportunity to bring the music and music industry into the spotlight of media and public attention. Nominations are made by the public and in 2019 over 100,000 public votes were expected across 18 categories.
Mellowosity is the debut studio album by Scottish Celtic fusion group Peatbog Faeries, released in 1996 on Greentrax Recordings. After forming as a vocal-based Celtic rock group in 1994, the duo had settled into becoming an instrumental Celtic fusion group by the release of Mellowosity. The album draws from a wide range of musical styles and influences including jazz, reggae, afrobeat, rock, Eastern music, dub and funk, that are mixed in with the band's traditional Scottish folk/Celtic sound featuring fiddles and bagpipes.
Faerie Stories is the second album by Scottish Celtic fusion group Peatbog Faeries, released in 2001 on Greentrax Recordings. The album was reissued in 2008 as a digipack. The album is large departure from the sound of their début album Mellowosity (1996), and sees the band explore a largely electronic sound mixed with their traditional Celtic fusion sound. Influences of electronic genres such as electronica, house, dubtronica and trip hop, in addition to even dub music and African music can be heard on the album fused with traditional Scottish Celtic music.
Welcome to Dun Vegas is the third album by Scottish Celtic fusion group Peatbog Faeries, released in July 2003 as the first release on the band's own Peatbog Records label. The album was recorded in a cottage on the banks of Pool Roag, near Dunvegan, on the Isle of Skye. Following the electronic-infused Faerie Stories (2001), Dun Vegas was co-produced between Calum MacLean and the band's drummer Iain Copeland. The album is experimental, mixing traditional and modern Celtic music with other genres and styles such as African music and electronica and featuring experimental effects including backwards drumming and a track based around a kitchen cooker timer.
Croftwork is the fourth album by Scottish Celtic fusion group Peatbog Faeries, recorded in Roag on the Isle of Skye, and released in 2005 on the band's own Peatbog Records label. It was released as the label's second album following on from the band's previous album Welcome to Dun Vegas (2003). They recorded the album at Phat Controller Productions on the band's native Isle of Skye.
What Men Deserve To Lose is the fifth album by Scottish Celtic fusion group Peatbog Faeries, recorded at Skye Recording in Roag on the band's native Isle of Skye in 2007, and was commercially released on 16 July 2007 on the band's own label Peatbog Records, though the album had been sold at festivals, and from the band's website, since 22 June 2007. It is the band's first album to feature Graeme Stafford, who brings what the band described as a "dancey" feel to the album.
Bothy Culture is the second studio album by the Scottish Celtic fusion artist Martyn Bennett, released in January 1998 on the Rykodisc label. After winning critical acclaim for his debut album Martyn Bennett (1996), Bothy Culture builds upon that album's mixing of Scottish Celtic music with farther, international folk music styles and contemporary electronic music. The album celebrates and draws upon the music of Bennett's native Gaeldom as well as the music of Islam and Scandinavia, with Bennett finding and emotionally connecting to the similarities between the geographically dispersed styles. It mixes the styles with contemporary electronic music such as breakbeat and drum and bass.
The Killdares were a Dallas celtic rock group formed in 1996. The group released five studio albums and two live music projects; the live CD LIVE from 2002 and live DVD/dual CD combo Up Against the Lights in 2010. The Killdares played many local Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex festivals, including Taste Addison, MayFest, Texas Scottish Festival and Highland Games, Wildflower! Arts and Music Festival, and Grapefest, and were featured at the State Fair of Texas for seventeen years. The band retired in November 2016 after 20 years of performing.
Dust is the sixth studio album by the Scottish Celtic fusion band Peatbog Faeries, released on 8 August 2011 on Peatbog Records, although pre-release copies were released on 20 July 2011 through the band's online shop. Following the band's 2008 tour and subsequent live album, the band's fiddle player Adam Sutherland and drummer Iain Copeland left the band, replaced by Peter Tickell and Stu Haikney respectively whose experience helped stir the band in a new direction. The band set to record Dust in 2011 with longtime producer Calum MacLean, beginning work in Orbost and concluding work at Cumbernauld College. Haikney brought experimental fiddle techniques to the band, and similarly experimental production techniques, whilst the entire band experimented with various genres of music including African music, funk, reggae, ambient music and electronic music alongside the band's traditional Celtic fusion sound. The brass sound of previous albums also returned. The album was also an attempt to translate the band's live sound to studio work.
Live is the first live album by Scottish celtic fusion band Peatbog Faeries, released in 2009 by Peatbog Records. It is a compilation album of live tracks from two of the band's concerts in their 2008 tour, and is the band's first album to have been released in a digipak.
Blackhouse is the seventh studio album by Scottish celtic fusion band Peatbog Faeries, released in May 2015 by the band's label Peatbog Records. After recording their acclaimed album Dust (2011), the band played live for the following few years, during which time fiddler Peter Tickell left the band, to be replaced by Ross Couper. As the band had not recorded an album for some years, they returned to record Blackhouse mainly in a cottage in Kilchoan, Ardnamurchan during 2014, although recording continued into 2015. Their first album with Touper, and their first without a brass section since Welcome to Dun Vegas (2003), Blackhouse was produced by Calum MacLean and displays a very eclectic array of genres, fusing the band's Scottish celtic roots with genres such as jazz, funk, reggae, dance and house.
Treacherous Orchestra are a Scottish 12-piece Celtic fusion band. The band blends Scottish traditional music with other influences such as folk, rock and punk. Instruments used include bagpipes, accordion, banjo, bodhrán, fiddle and tin whistle as well as guitars, bass and drums. The Guardian described them as "a Scottish folk big band, celebrated for their furious live performances and impressive musicianship". They first played together at Celtic Connections in 2009, and were nominated for the Scottish Album of the Year awards in 2015.
Zoë Bestel is a Scottish singer-songwriter, who describes her music as Nu-Folk. She started learning the Ukulele in 2011 and released her first EP in 2012. Bestel has released two albums, been nominated for the Scottish Alternative Music Awards under the Best Acoustic category and supported artists such as Nathan Connolly of Snow Patrol, Emily Smith, The Paul McKenna Band, The Peatbog Faeries, Erin Rae, Chris Wood, Paul Brady, Steve Tilston and Bella Hardy.