Brìghde Chaimbeul, Rhodri Davies, Sam Amidon and Linda Buckley discuss the roles of tradition and place in music, and what they might think about when performing.

Brìghde Chaimbeul is a Gaelic musician, composer and bagpipe player. Her music stems from traditional Gaelic material, particularly sourced from archival recordings, of songs, stories and music from the Highlands and islands of Scotland. It also explores wider musical influences, such as a variety of global piping traditions from eastern Europe, Cape Breton and Ireland. She has collaborated with artists including Ross Ainslie, Gruff Rhys, Martin Green, Carlos Nunez and Allan MacDonald. Last year she released the album Carry Them With Us in collaboration with Colin Stetson, weaving together textural drones, trance atmospheres and instrumental folk traditions.

Rhodri Davies is a Welsh musician who plays harp, electric harp and live electronics, as well as building harp installations. He started playing the harp at the age of 7 and is classically trained on the orchestral pedal harp; he also plays a range of different harps, modifying their sounds with different techniques and pushing the boundaries of how the instrument can sound. He’s released seven solo albums and regularly works with groups such as Hen Ogledd, Cranc, the Sealed Knot and Common Objects.

Sam Amidon is an American singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist from Vermont. He plays the fiddle, guitar and banjo, and is a member of the Icelandic music collective/record label Bedroom Community. He has released a string of acclaimed albums, ranging in theme from interpretations of traditional Irish fiddle pieces to old-time melodies and tales from traditional American folk history. His collaborators include classical composer Nico Muhly, experimental composer/producer Ben Frost, composer/violinist Eyvind Kang, guitar legend Bill Frisell and veteran jazz drummer Milford Graves.

Linda Buckley is an Irish composer and musician who creates electronic and acoustic music working across many disciplines, most notably film, and drone and dark ambient music. She’s worked in many collaborative contexts, including scoring films such as Nothing Compares by Kathryn Ferguson and To The Moon by Tadhg O’Sullivan. Recent collaborators include Liam Byrne and Crash Ensemble, Gudrun Gut and Andrew Zolinsky.

Caterina Barbieri, Kali Malone, Moritz Von Oswald and Robert Aiki Aubrey Lowe discuss the role limitations play in the creative process, and whether they can be a source for creativity, if working with limitations helps sharpen one’s aesthetics and define one’s unique artistic voice, and whether human imagination needs limits to become limitless.

Caterina Barbieri is a composer and modular synth artist whose sound draws from electronic, experimental and dance music. Her work is informed by an education in classical guitar and electro-acoustic composition at the Conservatory of Bologna, as well as the Royal College of Music in Stockholm and its famed centre for sound art, Elektronmusikstudion. She has spent a decade since her debut release, Vertical, breaking the rigid structures of electronic music and exploring how sound can induce both metaphysical and psycho-physical responses. Her most recent project, Myuthafoo, further investigates her interest in time, space, memory and emotion, and the links between them.

Kali Malone is a composer and organist based in Stockholm. Her compositions are rich with harmonic texture through synthetic and acoustic instrumentation. In 2016 she co-founded the record label and concert series XKatedral, together with Maria W Horn, in Stockholm. Over the last few years she has released the critically acclaimed albums The Sacrificial Code, Living Torch, and Does Spring Hide Its Joy featuring Stephen O’Malley & Lucy Railton.

Moritz Von Oswald is a dub techno pioneer producer and percussionist hailing from Berlin. He is the co-founder of production duo and record label Basic Channel. Prior to becoming one of the leading figures in electronic music in the 1990s, he played in one of the last incarnations of Palais Schaumburg. In a career spanning more than 30 years, he has worked with many legendary artists including Juan Atkins, Thomas Fehlmann, Carl Craig and Tony Allen.

Robert Aiki Aubrey Lowe is a Brooklyn-based artist, curator, composer and multi-instrumentalist. In 1997, he joined the band 90 Day Men before releasing solo projects under the moniker Lichens from 2004. He has collaborated on projects or provided sound in a featured artist capacity for such films as End of Summer, Sicario, Arrival, Last and First Men with Johann Johannsson and It Comes at Night with Brian McOmber. More recently, Robert has scored Il colpo del cane for Fulvio Risuleo, Candyman for Nia DaCosta, The Color of Care for Yance Ford and Master for Mariama Diallo.

Ane Brun, Linden Jay and Sylvan Esso's Amelia Meath discuss collaboration, navigating between genres and lyrical inspirations.

Ane Brun is a musician hailing from Norway but based in Sweden, who also runs the label Balloon Ranger. Her music is rooted in folk pop and she's released 11 studio albums; her most recent is Portrayals, which came out last year. It is a collection of covers, including a previously unheard version of Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart’s Blue Moon, to celebrate 20 years since her debut album Spending Time with Morgan.

Linden Jay is a Grammy-nominated musician and producer from London. In addition to releasing music as a soloist, he is one half of the band FARR, a transatlantic duo described as a crossover between soul and alternative pop. As a producer and songwriter, he has also worked with artists including Stormzy, Sampha, Kelis and Loyle Carner.

Amelia Meath is a Grammy-nominated musician and dancer based in North Carolina. She sings in the electronic pop band Sylvan Esso and alt-folk group Mountain Man, and has collaborated with the likes of Real Estate and John Cale.

Audio for this episode was updated on 27th March 2024.

Bill Ryder-Jones, Anna Calvi and Poppy Hankin discuss the first piece of music that really affected them, how their writing has changed as they’ve grown older, and how much they’re willing to give people control over their music.

Bill Ryder-Jones is from West Kirby, Merseyside. He co-founded the Coral, playing as their lead guitarist from 1996 until 2008. Since then he’s pursued a solo career, writing his own albums and film scores, as well as producing and playing on records for other artists including the Last Shadow Puppets, Graham Coxon, Paloma Faith, the Wytches and Hooton Tennis Club. He’s recently released his fifth solo album Iechyd Da (which translates as "good health" in Welsh).

Singer-songwriter and composer Anna Calvi is known for her operatic singing voice and virtuosic guitar skills. She’s the only solo artist to have received three consecutive Mercury Prize nominations, going on to become a judge for the awards, and her other work includes everything from scoring seasons five and six of the acclaimed TV series Peaky Blinders to a stage production of the opera The Sandman.

Vocalist and guitarist Poppy Hankin leads London-based indie-rock trio Girl Ray. Their sound has taken them on a journey from C-86 style indie-rock to uplifting pop music; their third album Prestige, released last year, sees them reclaim disco music as a celebration of sexuality and outsider culture.

Dot Allison, Andy Bell, Bishi and Charlotte Kemp Muhl discuss AI in music, the importance of music in education and finding your own creative voice.

Dot Allison is a singer-songwriter and composer whose work has included film and TV scores such as Black Death, Triangle, The Devil’s Double and Henry: Mind of a Tyrant. She began her career in Edinburgh in the early 90s with the band Dove/One Dove, before releasing her debut solo album Afterglow a decade later. She has since worked with artists including Massive Attack, Kevin Shields, Hal David, Paul Weller, Pete Doherty and Darren Emerson. In 2023 she released Consciousology, an album that provides an imagined voice of a conscious universe expressed through music.

Andy Bell is a musician, producer and DJ hailing from Cardiff. He started his career in Oxford in 1988 as one of two vocalists and guitarists of the band Ride, helping pioneer the genre of shoegaze. He went to play in Oasis and Hurricane #1. His production work includes projects with The Kynd and the Swedish band Weeping Willows. In 2023, he joined the supergroup Mantra of the Cosmos along with Shaun Ryder, Zak Starkey and Bez. He also worked with Dot Allison on her album Consciousology last year.

Bishi is a singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, multimedia performer, producer, composer and DJ. Born in London with Bengali heritage, she has been trained in both Hindustani and Western classical styles and studied the sitar under Gaurav Mazumdar, a senior disciple of Ravi Shankar. She has released three albums independently on her own label Gryphon Records. Her third album, Let My Country Awake, released in 2021, is a musical setting of a work by Bengali poet and social reformer Rabindranath Tagore. She is the artistic director and co-founder of WITCiH (‘The Women in Technology Creative Industries Hub’), a platform increasing the visibility of women at the intersection of music, creative technology and STEM.

Charlotte Kemp Muhl is a singer-songwriter, writer, model, actress, director, Chimera label co-founder and multi-instrumentalist. She formed the band The Ghost of a Sabre Tooth Tiger in 2008 with her partner Sean Ono Lennon, best known for their 2014 album Midnight Sun. In 2009 she co-founded the label Chimera with Lennon and Yuka Honda. She later formed the group UNI and The Urchins in 2017 alongside Jack James Busa and David Strange, releasing last year the project Simulations.

Laura Misch, Suzanne Ciani, Madame Gandhi and Sian O'Gorman talk about their music practices, how they’re entwined with nature and technology, the natural muses which inspire their creative process, and imagining futures in which music can have a reciprocal relationship with the environment it is played within.

Laura Misch is a multidisciplinary artist and producer from London. She is a singer, songwriter and saxophonist, who also makes audio and video collages. She primarily has a loop-based saxophone practice, and her debut EP Playground was released in 2017. Since then, she has also become interested in including natural surroundings in recordings. In 2021, she composed an immersive outdoor installation in Epping Forest in the UK, eventually soundtracking large-scale tree projections mapped onto buildings in London. Her debut album Sample The Sky came out on October 13th, and it’s an ode to care, connection and listening to the natural world.

Producer, drummer, artist and activist Madame Gandhi's career has included collaborations with MIA, Kehlani, and Thievery Corporation, and she’s also featured on the BBC's 100 Women list. Her activism includes combating menstrual stigma people face around the world, and she’s a Harvard graduate to boot.

Suzanne Ciani is a musician, sound designer, composer, and record label executive who has made incredible electronic music and sound effects for films and TV. She’s worked with quadrophonic sound, and has been pioneering electronic music since the 1970s.

Sian O’Gorman is part of the self-managed collective NYX,a collaborative drone choir and otherworldly electric chorus, re-embodying live electronics and vocal techniques. NYX will be recording their debut album later this year.

Chromeo, La Roux and Empress of discuss longevity in the music world, the future of music media and the shifting notions of taste and trends.

David “Dave 1” Macklovitch and Patrick “P-Thugg” Gemayel make up electro-funk duo Chromeo. The pair met in the mid-1990s at college in Montreal, bonding over a love of hip-hop and vintage funk. After hearing records like Daft Punk’s Discovery, they formed Chromeo in 2002, releasing their debut, She’s in Control, in 2004. Their music combines funk grooves and pop hooks with analogue synth melodies, and they have just released their new album Adult Contemporary: a meditation on modern, mature relationships.

Empress Of is a singer and musical artist who creates introspective, self-empowering electro pop. She grew up on the music of Latin America and debuted with anonymous demos on YouTube in 2012. She’s developed into an artist whose creativity knows no bounds, from the quirky and eclectic to the straight-up danceable. She will release her fourth album, For Your Consideration, on March 22nd through Major Arcana.

Joel Shadbolt, Dallas Tamaira, Anna Coddington and Allen Stone talk about how environments shape their sound, staying healthy and sane on the road, and the 70s soul sound.

A lifelong musician from the Bay of Plenty in New Zealand, Joel Shadbolt studied music at polytechnic before joining L.A.B. as the singer and guitarist in 2016. Their distinct blend of reggae, rock, funk and soul has established them as one of the premier acts in New Zealand. L.A.B's sixth album, L.A.B VI will be out 23 February 2024.

Dallas Tamaira is a singer and musician born in Christchurch, raised in Kaikōura and now based in Wellington, New Zealand. He’s occasionally known by the alias Joe Dukie, but is best known as the vocalist for the internationally renowned urban pasifika and dub group Fat Freddy's Drop, which he co-founded in 1999. He’s just dropped his new solo EP, Levels.

Anna Coddington is a multi-award winning songwriter, singer and producer from Raglan, New Zealand, currently living in Auckland, who has released four critically acclaimed albums to date. She also has an MA in linguistics, is currently studying for a law degree, and is a 2nd dan black belt in kyokushin karate.

Allen Stone is an American soul and R&B singer and musician, based in Spokane, Washington. He is a pastor’s son who grew up on gospel music, and by the time he was 11, he’d picked up a guitar and written his first song. He has released five albums to date.

Ana Carla Maza, Lucas Santtana and Eliane Correa discuss the music of Cuba, women as producers and composers in Cuban music, and their creative process.

Cuban composer, cellist and singer Ana Carla Maza grew up in the Afro-Cuban Guanabacoa district of Havana, Cuba, in the early years of the Buena Vista Social Club revival. She moved to Paris to train at the Conservatoire, and the city became the beginning of her solo and touring career. Although she’s a classically trained cellist, she’s always incorporated her Havana roots in her work, and her latest album Caribe is a reconnection to those roots, inspired by Afro-Cuban descarga jams of the 1950s.

Lucas Santtana is a singer, composer and producer from Salvador, Brazil. He recreates the Brazilian guitar tradition, mixing up sounds from the 1950s, like João Gilberto and Dorival Caymmi, with mashups, samples and his own creations.

Eliane Correa is a pianist, MD and composer based between London and Havana. She was the bandleader of the Cuban fusion project Wara, and has also worked with Eli & La Evolución, En El Aire Project and The World of Hans Zimmer. Her unique sound equally reflects her Latin heritage and London musical melting pot experience.

Composers Zubin Kanga, Jasmin Kent Rodgman, Laura Bowler and Neil Luck discuss the role of technology in their work, how their collaborators have influenced them and the technology they’d love to try.

Australian-born pianist, composer and technologist Zubin Kanga moved to London in 2007, where he attended the Royal Academy of Music. Through his work he seeks to explore and redefine what it means to be a performer through interactions with new technologies, including artificial intelligence, virtual reality, biosensors and more. He’s worked with some of the world’s leading composers including Steve Reich, Shiva Feshareki and Alexander Schubert and has premiered more than 130 works across the world.

Artist and composer Jasmin Kent Rodgman brings together contemporary classical, electronics and sound art to create powerful soundscapes and musical identities. She works across a variety of different art forms, including dance, word film and VR, and explores otherness, memory and narrative in her music.

Composer, vocalist and artistic director Laura Bowler specialises in theatre, multi-disciplinary work and opera. She’s been commissioned by orchestras and ensembles across the globe and as a soloist has performed and premiered works internationally. She’s also a vocalist in contemporary music ensemble Ensemble Lydenskab in Aarhus, Denmark.

Neil Luck's music explores the interaction between live human performance and multimedia. His work takes a range of forms, from music-theatre to concert works and radio, and last year he collaborated with Mimi Doulton on an EP titled Five English Folk Songs, a piece of work that explores traditional singing techniques that have been lost and buried.