As we near the end of 2016 we are reflecting on another fun and action packed year for the band. We rounded things off in a very special way at the Scots Trad Music Awards. where we were delighted and very humbled to pick up both Folk Band of the Year and Album of the Year. A sincere thank you to all who voted and also to the wonderful team who work so hard behind the scenes in support and make it possible for us to literally live our dreams. We are very grateful to all of the Active Events team – past and present, the legend that is Bob Buchan, our long suffering engineer Iain Thomson, Alex McNutt and to all the promoters, venue’s and festivals who give us the opportunity to play!
Our album ‘Astar’ was inspired by our travels, the people we have met and musicians with whom we have collaborated. It is a multicultural celebration and a work we are very proud of. Bringing it to life would not have been possible without the energy, skills and talents of Greg LawsonStuart Hamilton @ Castlesound Studios, Daniel Warren, James Morrison, Stuart Curnow and our guests, Yirrmal, Mark Atkins, Scotty Morrison, Olav Luksengård Mjelva and our dear champignons Le Vent du nord, each of who added their own beautiful colour to the record.
Finally, to all of you who come out to support us at live shows and who buy our records, our heartfelt thanks, there’d be none of this without you!
It’s been a year tinged with sadness also and we have lost many special souls including those who have been so influential and important in our development both individually and collectively. Love, thanks and farewell to John Macdougall, Angus Grant Jnr, Maggie Macdonald & Bill Kyle.
Celtic Connections
We’re taking a bit of time off now, but can’t wait to start back with a bang at Celtic Connections 2017. On February the 3rd we’ll be at the Glasgow City Halls to put on a special show featuring some of good friends (Greg Lawson, Olav Luksengård Mjelva & Pierre-Luc Dupuis) for a reimagining of some of the music from Astar. The fantastic Beoga will also be sharing the bill with us, guaranteed to be a great craic night of music.
Also keep you eyes peeled for a special Burn’s Night celebration on BBC Radio Scotland coming live from the festival on the 25th!
Individually we’ll be out in various different guises over the festival. James Mackenzie & Calum are appearing as part of a new ten-strong piper collaboration Tryst, catch them on the 21st Jan (Also check them out on Facebook!). Megan will be performing at the Night for Angus (21st Jan), with Siobhan Miller (26th),Duncan Chisolm (28th Jan), Lauren Maccoll (4th Feb) and with flautist/singer Sean Gray for his New Voices commission on (22nd Jan). James Lindsay will also be on Sean’s gig as well as with Gaelic singer Mischa Macpherson (28th Jan).Ewan will be at St Andrews in the Square for the TMSA’s 101 Scottish Songs – The wee Red book (21st Jan) as well as joining Megan at the An Lochran – Stri is Buaidh concert (4th Feb). Phew, it’s going to be a busy festival!
Shop
Our online store will be closed from today (20th) for the Christmas holidays. Any orders placed during the next couple of weeks will go out after the 4th of January.
February/March Tour
Following on from Celtic Connections we’ll be hitting the road for a run of UK dates (and a quick jaunt to Rotterdam…). We’ve still got a couple of free dates (7th and 16th Feb) if you think you might be able to put on a show please don’t hesitate to get in touch! info@breabach.com
Hope you’re all enjoying the summer so far! Since our last update we’ve been laying quite low, however we did manage a fun weekend up at Skye Live, a visit to Germany for Festspiele Mecklenburg (where we also got to work with the local youth orchestra) as well as fitting in a few marathons and cycle sportifs for good measure! Now though over in Breabach HQ we’re getting the clothes packed, pipes tuned and suncream applied (optimistic) for our run of summer festivals which kicks off this coming weekend. First stop is the Byre in the Botanicsseries in St Andrews with our good pals – amazing Orcadian band Fara. Should be a great evening in the park! We then head straight down south to Priddy Folk Festival where we will be closing out the Sunday evening. Hope to see you there! The following weekends will see us visiting Tiree, Lewis, Trowbridge, Cambridge, Aboyne, Belladrum, Crieff and Italy. Full details below.
Canada
September sees us returning to Canada following up on last summers amazing tour. We start off with a bang at the Fort Henry Kitchen Party before heading on for a few shows at Ontario Small Halls, gigs in London ON, Peterborough ON and the Contact East Showcase in NB. Should be a fun few weeks.
Astar Tour
Our second leg of the Astar album release tour continues in October. Some more dates still coming in but here’s a couple for you diary including a new venue for us in London at Rich Mix (27th Oct)!
Here’s a look at the making of our new album Astar. Filmed by our pal Daniel Warren and featuring discussion with producer Greg Lawson, we hope it gives you a little insight into how we pulled the record together. We’re taking pre-orders now ahead of release on 11/03/16.
We’re just back home from a lovely short tour in Austria where we performed sold-out shows in Vienna, Oblarn and Bludenz. Great venues, beautiful scenery, lovely audiences and a few schnitzel thrown in for good measure! There’s no time to rest though as we hit the road back in the UK for a string of shows. Looking forward to playing at some of our favourite venues, seeing some familiar faces and visiting some new places as well. Hope to see you out there!
22nd : Nettlebed Village Club, Nr Henley-on-Thames, UK BUY TICKETS
23rd : The Fleece Inn, Bretforton, UK BUY TICKETS
25th : Colston Hall, Bristol, UK BUY TICKETS
26th : Liverpool Phil Music Room, Liverpool, UK BUY TICKETS
27th : The Met, Bury, UK BUY TICKETS
28th : Victoria Hall, Saltaire BUY TICKETS
March 2016
2nd : Eastgate Theatre, Peebles, UK BUY TICKETS
3rd : New Greenham Arts Centre, Newbury, UK BUY TICKETS
4th : Grayshott Folk Club, Surrey, UK BUY TICKETS
5th : The Pound, Corsham, UK BUY TICKETS
6th : Pavilion Arts Centre, Buxton, UK BUY TICKETS
10th : The Convent, Stroud, UK BUY TICKETS
11th : The Queen’s Theatre, Barnstaple, UK BUY TICKETS
12th : Emsworth Baptist Church, Emsworth, UK BUY TICKETS
13th : 100 Club, London, UK BUY TICKETS
19th : The Lemon Tree, Aberdeen, UK BUY TICKETS
25th : Bishopton Folk Night, Renfrewshire, UK BUY TICKETS
26th : Fochabers Institute (Arc Sessions), Fochabers BUY TICKETS
31st : The Grand, Clitheroe, UK BUY TICKETS
Greetings of the season to you all! It’s been a busy few months for us in ’Breabachland’ having been in the studio finishing our latest album Astar (more below) as well eine fantastische tour of Germany with The Paddy Callaghan Trio, Fin Moore and the Highland Blast crew. We’re looking forward to big meals and long lies over the festive season but things start ramping up again over New Year with gigs at the the Inverness Hogmanay Street party (31st Dec), Ullapool Ceilidh Place (1st Jan) and An Lanntair in Stornaway (2nd Jan) - will be a great way to conclude an exciting year. Thanks as always for supporting the band and we’ll see you again in 2016!
ASTAR
We are delighted to announce that our fifth studio album, Astar, will be released on 11th March 2016 - accompanied by a full UK tour (see below). The music on the album takes inspiration from the beautiful places we have visited and wonderful people we have met whilst on tour over the last few years. Working with producer Greg Lawson we have taken melodic, rhythmic and harmonic ideas from five different cultures and merged them with our sound. Some of this is woven into the arrangement, some of this is achieved through self-penned works. We’re really excited to feature some special guests on the recording including Yidaki player Mark Atkins (AUS), extraordinary Aboriginal artist Yirrmal Marika of The Black Arm Band (AUS), Maori tradition bearer Scott Morrison (NZ), Quebecois violinist Olivier Demers and the members of Le Vent Du Nord (Quebec) and Hardanger virtuoso Olav Luksengård Mjelva of Nordic Fiddlers Bloc & Sver (NO). We are incredibly proud of the album and very grateful to Greg Lawson and Stuart Hamilton at Castlesound studios for helping bring these crazy ideas to life! We can’t wait to let you hear it.
The album is available to pre-order now! Head over to: breabach.bandcamp.com/astar where you can browse some of the different pre-order packages available. You’ll be amongst the first to receive a physical copy of the album as well as getting an instant download of one track.
Album Tour
In January we will begin our album tour, kicking things off at Perth Concert Hall alongside the amazing Anda Union from Mongolia. February and March will take us across the UK, as well as a short stint in Austria, before finishing up at home in Glasgow on 2nd April. Hope you can join us at some point on the tour, we are really looking forward to taking the music of Astar out on the road and seeing some familiar folky friends along the way!
December 2015
31st : Inverness Red Hot Highland Fling BUY TICKETS
January 2016
1st : The Ceilidh Place, Ullapool BUY TICKETS 2nd : An Lanntair, StornawayBUY TICKETS 28th : Perth Concert Hall, United Kingdom, With AnDa Union BUY TICKETS
February 2016
12th : The Brunton, Musselburgh, UK BUY TICKETS 13th : The Civic, Barnsley, UK BUY TICKETS 18th : Konzerthaus, Vienna, Austria BUY TICKETS 19th : ku:L, Öblarn, Austria BUY TICKETS 20th : Remise, Bludenz, Austria BUY TICKETS 22nd : Nettlebed Village Club, Nr Henley-on-Thames, UK BUY TICKETS 23rd : The Fleece Inn, Bretforton, UK BUY TICKETS 25th : Colston Hall, Bristol, UK BUY TICKETS 26th : Liverpool Phil Music Room, Liverpool, UK BUY TICKETS 27th : The Met, Bury, UK BUY TICKETS
March 2016
2nd : Eastgate Theatre, Peebles, UK BUY TICKETS 3rd : New Greenham Arts Centre, Newbury, UK BUY TICKETS 4th : Grayshott Folk Club, Surrey, UK BUY TICKETS 5th : The Pound, Corsham, UK BUY TICKETS 6th : Pavilion Arts Centre, Buxton, UK BUY TICKETS 10th : The Convent, Stroud, UK BUY TICKETS 11th : The Queen’s Theatre, Barnstaple, UK BUY TICKETS 12th : Emsworth Baptist Church, Emsworth, UK BUY TICKETS 13th : 100 Club, London, UK BUY TICKETS 19th : The Lemon Tree, Aberdeen, UK BUY TICKETS 25th : Bishopton Folk Night, Renfrewshire, UK BUY TICKETS 26th : Fochabers Institute (Arc Sessions), Fochabers BUY TICKETS 31st : The Grand, Clitheroe, UK BUY TICKETS
Hope you all have had a great summer! It’s been a successful few months over here in Breabach land. June and July saw us take in great coast to coast tour of Canada visiting some amazing festivals and meeting friends & family, old and new – thanks to all that helped make it happen. You can check out our photo album from the trip over on the Facebook HERE. Since returning we managed a quick trip to the Lorient Interceltique Festival which was brilliant but mainly we’ve been hidden away in rehearsal rooms all of August preparing material for our new album…
New album ‘Astar’
We’re delighted to announce our next album entitled ‘Astar’ which translates from Gaelic as distance or journey. The album reflects on the travels we have been fortunate enough to make over the last few years, the people that have inspired us along the way and the influences that we have carried back home with us. For the recording sessions we are returning to the brilliant Castlesound Studios in Pencaitland where we recorded Ùrlar back in 2013 under the watchful eye of engineer supremo Stuart Hamilton. The studio space is just perfect for the way we work and will once again allow us to record in our natural environment – live. In the producers chair we are delighted to welcome in Greg Lawson. Known for his work as principal violin in the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra as well as genre bending group Moishe’s bagel Greg has been inspiring us for many years now. In January 2015 Greg premiered his newly orchestrated adaptation of Martyn Bennet’s GRIT to critical acclaim and as part of the orchestra, Calum experienced first hand what a driven, enthusiastic and excited musical director Greg was. We’re all very buzzed up about where he will take the Breabach sound.
We begin recording at the end of September and will be bringing the album to your ears early 2016. Stay tuned for more news and pre-order details in the next couple of months!!
Upcoming Shows
We are heading out for a few festivals this month before we head into the studio. Hope to catch some of you at these concerts (see below)! Our next run of shows will then start in November as part of the Highland Blast tour in Germany before returning home in December for a few wintery gigs.
September 2015
11th : Bromyard Folk Festival, Bromyard, United Kingdom BUY TICKETS 12th : Swanage Swanage Folk Festival United Kingdom BUY TICKETS 17th – 20th : Ceòl Cholasa, Colonsay, United Kingdom BUY TICKETS 25th : Southdown Folk Festival, Bognor Regis, United Kingdom BUY TICKETS
