Mouth Music
| Mouth Music | |
|---|---|
| Origin | Edinburgh, Scotland |
| Genres | Celtic fusion, folk, worldbeat, world music, pop |
| Years active | 1988–1997 2001–present |
| Labels | Triple Earth/Rykodisc (1988-1997) Skiteesh (2001-present) |
| Associated acts | Talitha MacKenzie, Capercaillie, Ambisonic, Helicopter Girl, Kries, The Stobo Village Band |
| Website | Official website |
| Members |
Martin Swan Martin Furey Michaela Rowan |
| Past members |
Martyn Bennett Jeremy Black Alison Crawford Lamin Jassey Jackie Joyce Ishbel MacAskill George Macdonald Willie Macdonald Talitha MacKenzie James Mackintosh Quee McArthur Jaq Ferry Mairi McInnes Andy Thorburn Malcolm Shields Jim Sutherland |
Mouth Music is a Scottish-inspired musical project founded in 1988, whose combination of traditional Gaelic songs and music with contemporary instrumental and technological settings led them to international fame in the early 1990s.
Mouth Music has featured a variety of musicians over the years, with songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and producer Martin Swan as the only consistent member (and de facto leader). Other musicians who have passed through the project include singers Talitha MacKenzie, Jackie Joyce (aka Helicopter Girl), Martin Furey, Jaq Ferry, Mairi McInnes, Ishbel MacAskill and Michaela Rowan, plus fiddler Alison Crawford, Capercaillie/Shooglenifty drummer James Mackintosh, and pipe/flute/fiddle player Martyn Bennett.
Swan has commented "I've never seen Mouth Music as a group. It's always been me with different people joining to play live."
The name "Mouth Music" is an English translation of the Gaelic term puirt a beul - the vocalisation of instrumental music.
Mouth Music was initially an equal collaboration between Martin Swan and singer Talitha MacKenzie.
At the time of the band's formation, Swan (born in Sheffield, England, but of Scottish descent) was an Edinburgh-based composer, engineer and multi-instrumentalist with diverse musical interests including traditional Scottish folk, jazz, funk and electronic dance music. MacKenzie (born in New York) was a talented Scottish-American singer, pianist and ethnomusicologist who had taught herself Scottish Gaelic during her teen years. Conservatory-trained, her history and interests included teaching, Eastern European music and choral music: she had released a solo album called Shantyman! in 1986 (under the name of Talitha Nelson), had briefly been a member of the Boston-Irish band St James Gate and had toured America as a solo act or performing puirt a beul with Scottish traditional music bands. Having previously visited Scotland to make field recordings of folk music and research her own Scottish cultural heritage, MacKenzie moved to Scotland in 1987 and promptly joined the Scottish folk music ensemble Drumalban (in which she worked with unorthodox bagpipe and violin virtuoso Martyn Bennett).
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