Brìghde Chaimbeul’s bio describes her as a leading purveyor of Celtic experimentalism and a master of the Scottish smallpipes. This statement has become increasingly significant since she first appeared in our pages in 2016. She recently performed her first Tiny Desk Concert for NPR, which has already clocked over 340k views (watch below). Before we get there, it’s worth revisiting some past moments on KLOF to show how well-deserved the title of leading purveyor of Celtic experimentalism is.
Beginnings: BBC Radio 2 Young Folk Award
In 2016, Chaimbeul won the BBC Radio 2 Young Folk Award, after which she appeared at Fairport’s Cropredy Festival alongside her older sister Màiri on harp and Michael Ferrie on guitar (image below).
Brìghde, originally from Skye, started piping when she was 7, learning the Highland pipes in an area famous for its piping traditions. However, from the outset, her Cropredy set showed how widely her musical influences now stretch.
Johnny Whalley
Soon after this, I saw her at Sidmouth Folkweek, and she sent us a recording of Wee Donald, performed with Innes White, which we featured in our Folk Show (Episode 8).
Debut Album: The Reeling
In late 2018, she announced she would launch her debut album, The Reeling, at Celtic Connections 2019. It featured Aidan O’Rourke (Lau), Radie Peat (Lankum) and Rona MacDonald Lightfoot of South Uist. Rough Trade’s new folk imprint River Lea released the album. In his review of the album, David Kidaman noted that “Brìghde credits her own initial inspiration for taking up the pipes to veteran piper and pioneer of canntaireachd (a phonetic singing tradition used for teaching pipe tunes) Rona Lightfoot, whom she heard play (this was at age four – she began studying the instrument only three years later!).” He also notes her interest in Bulgarian tunes: “Aside from the exceptional playing of Brìghde herself, another distinctive feature of this disc is the inclusion of a number of Bulgarian tunes; Brìghde’s decision to perform and record these is clearly a direct result of her visit to that country in March 2017 and the impression its exhilarating and strange folk music, and in particular its kaba gaida piping tradition, made on her.”
The impact that debut album had on listeners is best highlighted by an interview with Tim Chipping, who, alongside Geoff Travis & Jeannette Lee, runs the label. He spoke collectively about the impact of their first three releases by Ye Vagabonds, Lisa O’Neill, and Brìghde, and suggested that, thanks to the strength of these three releases, they (River Lea) had already peaked!
First Collaborative Album
Before her next album, she released another debut: LAS, a collaboration with Ross Ainslie and Steven Byrnes, which signified that innovative thread we were becoming more aware of, with Thomas Blake describing it as a highly accomplished and outstanding album that, probably more than any other you’ll hear this year, unifies innovation and tradition.
Carry Them with Us
The biggest shift came in 2023 with Carry Them with Us, her first release via tak:til / Glitterbeat, on which she enlisted the help of Canadian saxophonist Colin Stetson. It was also the first album on which she sings. Again, Thomas Blake offered an insightful intro:
It is a quirk of musical fate that some of the most traditional forms can produce the most experimental sounds. Brìghde Chaimbeul is an instrumentalist from Skye who is steeped in the musical and oral traditions of the islands and highlands of Scotland but whose music is as invigorating and new as anything currently being produced in either folk or contemporary avant-garde circles. Her chosen instrument – the Scottish smallpipes – enables her to create two simultaneous drones and pick out a melody over the top, a technique that gives equal space to modernist composition and generations-old folk song, merging the two seamlessly and with dreamlike clarity. The Reeling, her 2019 solo debut, was met with unanimous praise from across a vast spectrum of critical outlets, and Carry Them With Us looks set to gain even greater acclaim.
…It marks the first instance of Chaimbeul’s singing, and the sudden insertion of a human voice in this otherwise wild landscape feels almost uncanny. The same effect is employed on the album’s final track, Bonn Beinn Eadarra (The Haunting). Detached but not emotionless, Chaimbeul’s voice hovers above the closing moments like a strange benediction. It brings the listener back to consciousness after an extraordinary experience that has slowly begun to resemble a series of strange, beautiful dream-stories, told with flair, nuance and incredible technical proficiency, but more importantly, with a real sense of ambition and innovation.
Sunwise
In 2025, she released Sunwise, a more solo effort, though it still included collaborative moments, such as on Sguabag/The Sweeper, recorded live with three uilleann pipers: John McSherry, Francis McIlduff, and Jamie Murphy. In his intro, Thomas Blake was keen to remind us of her achievements to this point:
The rise of Brìghde Chaimbeul has been quietly meteoric. In little over half a decade, the Scottish smallpipes player has gone from a teenager winning local piping contests to a leading figure in the worldwide experimental music community. She has graced the stages of genre-defining music festivals like Le Guess Who? and Supersonic, played on Caroline Polachek’s most recent album and struck up a lasting collaboration with pioneering Canadian sax experimentalist Colin Stetson.
He concludes that it is:
an album which treats experimentation and tradition with equal respect and always with an overriding sense that music is meant to be enjoyed. Chaimbeul is a serious artist, but one completely tuned in to the joys of her profession.
“All the Light in the World” with Colin Stetson
Her latest album, All the Light in the World, finds her back in the company of Colin Stetson. The label Invada describes it as: “Built from deep listening, improvisation, and an instinct for emotional intensity, the record merges Stetson’s innovative approach to the saxophone with Chaimbeul’s singular command of the Scottish smallpipes, creating music that drifts between drone, ritual, and cinematic expanse.”
Tiny Desk Concert
Watch the Tiny Desk Concert below, which features tracks from both Sunwise and Carry Them With Us. Shahzad Ismaily joins her on synths, lending the performance a stronger experimental feel.
Setlist
- a bhò a bhò, a dhuine dhuine dhuine
- She Went Astray (from Sunwise)
- Pìobaireachd Nan Eun (from Carry Them With Us)
- Bog an Lochan (from Sunwise)