And So We Gather

Kim Carnie wrote most of this debut album in Glen Lyon, Perthshire, and she has captured the unhurried peacefulness of life in that beautiful spot in these ten songs. The winner of the Gaelic Singer of the Year title at the MG Alba Trad Awards in 2021 and the voice of Gaelic folk-rockers Mànran, as well as featuring in projects including Simple Minds’ bassist Ged Grimes’ The Bard’s Tale computer game soundtrack, Oban-born Carnie has a distinctively gentle, almost spoken singing style that lends itself to songs of heartbreak and loss.

Sensitively produced by Donald Shaw, of Capercaillie, the album features musicians including singers Julie Fowlis, Karen Matheson and Kathleen MacInnes, kora player Kadialy Kouyate and saxophonist Matt Carmichael, whose rhythmical invention nudges ‘Nighean Sin Thall’ along to great effect and whose soloing lights up the carefully paced work song, ‘Disathairne Ghabh Mi Mulad’. Carnie writes in English, in addition to collecting and writing Gaelic songs, and the title-track, with its brooding string arrangement, and the closing ‘Loving You’ are, respectively, quietly celebratory and gorgeously desolate.