Afro Celt Sound System

Wedding electronica with the traditional music of West Africa and Ireland may seem like it would make for a stormy marriage, but Afro Celt Sound System has hitched them into a blissful polymorphous blend. The group's dancing and droning sound is ingenious and often beautiful, and Afro Celt mostly sidesteps the bright-eyed corniness that mars so many world-fusion projects.

Guitarist Simon Emmerson (a former member of the pop bands Scritti Politti and Working Week) decided to piece Afro Celt together after having a revelation while engineering recordings for Senegalese superstar Baaba Maal in West Africa. In 1992 he gathered the core of multi-instrumentalist James McNally, sean nos vocalist Iarla O'Lionaird and producer-programmer Martin Russell as well as part-time members Johnny Kalsi, N'faly Kouyate, Emer Mayock, Moussa Sissokho, Ian Markin and Francis Hylton. Some of the prominent guests include Peter Gabriel, Robert Plant, Sinead O'Connor, Davy Spillane, Liam O'Flynn and Eileen Ivers.

Afro Celt Sound System blends standard Celtic instruments like bodhran, harp, uilleann pipes, bouzouki, cittern, fiddle, mandolin, accordion and tin whistle with West African instruments like kora, balafon, n'goma, djembe, talking drums, nyatiti as well as the Persian dhol drum and electronics. Afro Celt then adds voices singing in English, Gaelic, various African dialects and languages from around the world to create a true global music.

The band's debut CD, Volume One: Sound Magic, came out on Peter Gabriel's Real World label in 1996 following a popular 1995 appearance at the WOMAD festival in Reading, England. Volume 2: Release hit in 1999 and Volume 3: Further in Time was issued in 2001. For 2003's Seed the band shortened its name to Afro Celt but it returned to the full title for 2004's Pod, a remix project with an accompanying DVD featuring live performances and videos. In 2005 the band released Anatomic.

Afro Celt Sound System has also contributed to several film soundtracks including Hotel Rwanda and Stigmata. – Christopher Porter