Celtic Connections: Brìghde Chaimbeul, Maxwell Quartet & Linda Buckley

•Brìghde Chaimbeul playing at Piping Live! 2019. Photo: JohnSlavin@designfolk.com/Bagpipe.news

Highlighting concerts at Celtic Connections 2024 featuring bagpipes or piping-related music. 

The Celtic Connection website says about the concert:  “Brìghde Chaimbeul is a leading purveyor of experimental Celtic music and of the Scottish smallpipes; a bellows-powered set of bagpipes with a double-note drone. She has devised a completely unique way of arranging for pipe music that emphasises the rich textural drones of the instrument; the constancy of sound that creates a trance-like atmosphere, played with enticing virtuosic liquidity.

“The Maxwell Quartet combines a refined approach to classical works, a passion for its own folk heritage, and a commitment to expand the string quarter repertoire through wide-ranging projects. Since forming officially in 2010 at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland as postgraduate students, the quartet has collaborated with a global roster of artists and toured extensively. In 2023 The Maxwell Quartet released Gather, which brings together traditional Scottish music ranging from 1200 to the present day, such as an ancient Celtic plainchant, fishermen’s songs, pipe marches from the Western Isles and Shetland reels, as well as new compositions.

“Linda Buckley is an Irish composer/performer who creates electronic and acoustic music, often in the realm of glitch, drone and dark ambient. In September 2020 her NMC record, From Ocean’s Floor was released, praised by Iggy Pop on BBC Radio 6 as “beautiful music – here is somebody really, really special”

“Dopey Monkey Ensemble is a collaboration between Dopey Monkey (Scotland) and Jean-Luc Thomas and Gab Faure (France). Dopey Monkey began in 2015 with Danielle Price and Martin Lee Thomson exploring all things tuba and euphonium. They have since become known for their varied creative output, drawing together their backgrounds in jazz, folk, classical and experimental music, along with their curiosity for storytelling, cross arts and collaboration.  Jean-Luc Thomas and Gab Faure know how to train crowds to the well-dancing. But they go far beyond: they infuse into traditional tunes the accents and rhythms harvested along their travels around the world. Their duet adventure freely readapts the dance tunes with creativity, mutual listening, reactivity, variations, and improvisations. This special concert set sees the musicians sharing the stage playing tunes from their respective repertoire and cultural traditions and collaborating on new pieces – an exchange of tunes, stories and the cultures they come from.”