Machair Records

UNAFFECTED  SWEET SINGING

After singing the theme song for the animated Disney film, Brave, Julie Fowlis took a step back from that kind of fame. Instead, she went back home to the island of North Uist, in the Outer Hebrides. For her community, it’s traditions and songs are the starting point for all her music. Her personal connection to her roots keeps her fresh, natural and unaffectedly Gaelic. For that’s were Fowlis’ strength is: the clean, clear, ornament-free voice and the fact that she performs all songs in Gaelic.

Gach sgeul - Every story, Fowlis’ first studio album in five years, offers a dozen songs, a mixture of work songs, lullabies, Puirt-à-beul (mouth music), Victorian poetry and folk tales about the shape-shifting seals. Both the faster dance songs and the slower, more emotionally powerful ballads are performed with the same unpretentious honesty, beauty and warmth. Fowlis’ voice control is impressive and she conveys a broad range of emotions with the simplest means.

Lars Fahlin