Trembling Bells

Trembling Bells is a Scottish folk rock group formed in 2008 by drummer Alex Neilson, a musician with a history of free and improvised playing with several artists. Based in Glasgow, the group released three albums through Honest Jon's Records. A fourth, The Sovereign Self, was released on 29 June 2015.

Neilson had previously collaborated with early music vocalist and musician Lavinia Blackwall in the free improvisation folk music project, Directing Hand. Neilson gathered a group from members of his previous musical projects, consisting of bassist Simon Shaw (formerly of Lucky Luke) and guitarist Ben Reynolds along with occasional players George Murray (trombone) and Aby Vuillamy (viola), both formerly of Scatter and The One Ensemble. The group signed to Honest Jon's Records in 2009 and released debut Carbeth in April 2009. The album was well received by critics.Carbeth holds a 76 (mostly favourable) rating from 7 reviews at Metacritic.

The band's second album, Abandoned Love, was co-produced with Belle and Sebastian member Stevie Jackson and released a year later in April 2010. Between albums Ben Reynolds was replaced by Mike Hastings on guitar. The critical response to this album was again positive. "Hidebound fol-de-rolling is just not an option for this band; they take the antic forms, loosen them and make them arresting and new once more." wrote Kitty Empire in The Guardian. Comparing with the debut album John Mulvey said that "The same elements remain – though perhaps less String Bandish whimsy – but this time, Trembling Bells are gutsier, more forthright, glowing with confidence"Abandoned Love was tipped as a possible nomination for the 2010 Mercury Music Prize, but their label did not enter the album into the contest.

Third album, The Constant Pageant was released on 21 March 2011. Reviews were again generally favourable. Critics observed a move towards mainstream pop Popmatters gave the album nine out of ten, stating "We should probably we careful about reading too much development into the material on album number three, because some of it appears to date back to the time of their debut (“Goathland”, for example, was in the band’s live repertoire from the start). Even so, it is still tempting to say that The Constant Pageant is the strongest collection Trembling Bells have yet put out." The reviewer for Uncut gave a mixed review, writing "one hopes the band will not steer too close to plain old indie rock." The album has an 81 out of 100 at Metacritic based on 5 reviews.

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