The Breath (UK) & Angeline Morrison (UK)

The performance of this exciting duo, formed by wonderfully gifted guitarist Stuart McCallum and outstanding singer Ríoghnach Connolly, is guaranteed to exude an enchanting intimacy. It’s folk music in its purest and most emotional form. It will be an evening full of charming songs about summers long past and first loves, but also about heartache, injustice and disruption.

Through her delicate whispers and powerful high notes, Irish folk singer Ríoghnach Connolly, who is known for her work with Afro Celt Sound System, creates the perfect balance with the ingenuity with which guitarist Stuart McCallum (formerly part of the Cinematic Orchestra) gives emotional depth to the songs. They have already released two stunning albums on Peter Gabriel’s Real World Label: Carry Your Kin and Let the Cards Fall. In autumn, they will be coming to Leuven to present their third album.

Angeline Morrison will open the evening. With her voice and autoharp, she performs old trad songs in a particularly subdued way. She seems to be the odd one out, with a Jamaican mother and a father who lives in the Scottish isles. But because of the way she performs and translates the folk songs from her own black identity, she remains loyal to the seasoned lovers of traditional folk music.

Her album The Sorrow Songs: Folk Songs Of Black British Experience was named one of the best albums of the year by The Guardian.