Glasgow’s hot new folk property, five-piece Ímar, have created more than a bit of a stir in little over a year since their formation.
Their debut video, unleashed to the world during Celtic Connections 2016, has been viewed in excess of 200,000 times – whilst their touring credits already include the opening set at that year’s Cambridge Folk
Festival and headlining a stage at Belgium’s Dranouter Festival just a week later.
The Irish and Manx flavoured quintet presented their debut album, Afterlight, last January at their official Celtic Connections debut in the Glasgow Royal Concert Hall. Their UK tour launched in April, and the group have attended numerous summer festivals including Denmark’s legendary Tønder Festival, where they were one of the first six names to be announced for its 2017 outing.
Adam Brown, Adam Rhodes, Mohsen Amini, Ryan Murphy and Tomás Callister share a strong background in Irish music – although only Murphy actually hails from Ireland; Rhodes and Callister are from the Isle of Man, whilst Amini is a Glasgow native, and Brown originally from Suffolk – and it is these foundations which underpin many of Ímar’s distinctive qualities, in both instrumentation and material.
Ímar’s unmistakable synergy, however, centres on the overlapping cultural heritage between Scotland, Ireland and the Isle of Man. All three places once shared the same Gaelic language, and a similar, clearly potent, kinship endures between their musical traditions.
Ímar are playing at The Blue Lamp in Aberdeen on Wednesday, September 6. See www.imarband.com/gigs/
