Ímar are a folk band from Britain and Ireland, founded in 2016 in

Glasgow, Scotland Glasgow is the Cities of Scotland, most populous city in Scotland, located on the banks of the River Clyde in Strathclyde, west central Scotland. It is the List of cities in the United Kingdom, third-most-populous city in the United Kingdom ...

. They won the Horizon Award for Best Emerging Act at the 2018

BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards The BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards celebrate outstanding achievement during the previous year within the field of folk music, with the aim of raising the profile of folk and acoustic music. The awards have been given annually since 2000 by British rad ...

History

The members of Ímar first met as teenagers through the

Comhaltas Ceoltóirí Éireann Comhaltas Ceoltóirí Éireann (; meaning "Society of the musicians of Ireland") is the primary Irish organisation dedicated to the promotion of the music, song, dance and the language of Ireland. The organisation was founded in 1951 and has pr ...

tutoring program. They reunited in

Glasgow Glasgow is the Cities of Scotland, most populous city in Scotland, located on the banks of the River Clyde in Strathclyde, west central Scotland. It is the List of cities in the United Kingdom, third-most-populous city in the United Kingdom ...

and formed the band in 2016, naming it after the Viking warlord

Ímar Ímar ( ; died c. 873) was a powerful Viking leader in Ireland and Scotland in the mid-late ninth century. He was the progenitor of the Uí Ímair dynasty, who would go on to dominate the Irish Sea region for several centuries. He was the son o ...

. The profile of the band rose quickly, bolstered by their individual reputations as members of several prominent ensembles. In 2018, the band won the Horizon Award for Best Emerging Act at the

Musical style

Ímar are a purely instrumental band. Their musical style is derived from the folk music traditions of the nations of each member – Brown is English, Murphy is Irish, Callister and Rhodes are Manx, and Amini is

Scottish Scottish usually refers to something of, from, or related to Scotland, including: *Scottish Gaelic, a Celtic Goidelic language of the Indo-European language family native to Scotland *Scottish English *Scottish national identity, the Scottish ide ...

. Murphy notes that their style is "more of a pure-drop trad sound than most of the other bands we’re involved in". In a review, Johnny Whalley of

Folk Radio UK ''KLOF Magazine'' is an independent online music and culture magazine launched in 2004 by Alex Gallacher. Content ''KLOF Magazine'' primarily features writings on music as well as interviews with a wide range of notable artists and musicia ...

notes that "while the general description 'Celtic' might be appropriate, their music, in fact, derives firmly from the Irish tradition with polkas and slides interspersed with the more generic jigs and reels". He highlights the "intensity, energy and, above all, precision" of their sets. Mike Wade of IOM Today describes their work as "fast, driving tunes, bouncing, infectious reels and slow, beautiful melodic numbers, highlighting individual skills of each player".

Band members

* Adam Brown –

Bodhrán The bodhrán (, ; plural ''bodhráin'') is a frame drum used in Irish music ranging from in diameter, with most drums measuring . The sides of the drum are deep. A Goatskin (material), goatskin head is tacked to one side (synthetic heads or ot ...

* Ryan Murphy –

Flute The flute is a member of a family of musical instruments in the woodwind group. Like all woodwinds, flutes are aerophones, producing sound with a vibrating column of air. Flutes produce sound when the player's air flows across an opening. In th ...

tin whistle The tin whistle, also known as the penny whistle, is a simple six-holed woodwind instrument. It is a type of fipple flute, a class of instrument which also includes the recorder and Native American flute. A tin whistle player is called a whistl ...

, and

uilleann pipes The uilleann pipes ( or , ), also known as Union pipes and sometimes called Irish pipes, are the characteristic national bagpipe of Ireland. Their current name is a partial translation of the Irish language terms (literally, "pipes of the ...

* Tomás Callister –

Fiddle A fiddle is a Bow (music), bowed String instrument, string musical instrument, most often a violin or a bass. It is a colloquial term for the violin, used by players in all genres, including European classical music, classical music. Althou ...

* Adam Rhodes –

Bouzouki The bouzouki (, also ; ; alt. pl. ''bouzoukia'', , from Greek , from Turkish ) is a musical instrument popular in West Asia (Syria, Iraq), Europe and Balkans (Greece, North Macedonia, Bulgaria, Turkey). It is a member of the long-necked lute fam ...

* Mohsen Amini –

Concertina A concertina is a free-reed musical instrument, like the various accordions and the harmonica. It consists of expanding and contracting bellows, with buttons (or keys) usually on both ends, unlike accordion buttons, which are on the front. The ...

Discography

* ''Afterlight'' (2017) * ''Avalanche'' (2018) * ''Awakening'' (2023)

References

External links