Afro Celt Sound System - Formation

Formation

The inspiration behind the project dates back to 1991, when Simon Emmerson, a Grammy Award-nominated British producer who would become the group's guitarist, collaborated with Afro-pop star Baaba Maal. While making an album with Maal in Senegal, Emmerson was struck by the similarity between one African melody and a traditional Irish air. Back in London, Irish musician Davy Spillane told Emmerson about a belief that nomadic Celts lived in Africa or India before they migrated to Western Europe. Whether or not the theory was true, Emmerson was intrigued by the two countries' musical affinities.

In an experiment that would prove successful, Emmerson brought members of Baaba Maal's band together with traditional Irish musicians to see what kind of music the two groups would create. Adding a dash of modern sound, Emmerson also brought in English dance mixers for an electronic beat. "People thought I was mad when I touted the idea," Emmerson told Jim Carroll of The Irish Times. "At the time, I was out of favour with the London club scene. I was broke and on income support but the success was extraordinary".

Jamming in the studios at Real World, musician Peter Gabriel's recording facilities in Wiltshire, England, the diverse group of musicians recorded the basis of their first album in one week. This album, Volume 1: Sound Magic, was released by Real World Records in 1996, and marked the debut of the Afro Celt Sound System, an energetic global fusion the likes of which the music world had not yet seen.

"Prior to that first album being made, none of us knew if it would work," musician James McNally told Larry Katz of the Boston Herald. "We were strangers who didn't even speak the same language. But we were bowled over by this communication that took place beyond language." McNally, who grew up second-generation Irish in London, played keyboards, piano, bodhran, and bamboo flute.

Sound Magic sold 250,000 copies. The band performed at festivals, raves, and dance clubs and had grown to include two more African musicians, Moussa Sissokho on talking drums and N'Faly Kouyate on vocals, kora, and balafon.

Just as the second album was getting off the ground, one of the group's core musicians, 27-year-old keyboardist Jo Bruce (son of Cream bass player Jack Bruce), died suddenly of an asthma attack. The band was devastated, and the album was put on hold. Then Irish pop star Sinéad O'Connor came to the rescue, collaborating with the band and helping them cope with their loss. " blew into the studio on a windy November night and blew away again leaving us something incredibly emotional and powerful," McNally told Katz. "We had this track we didn't know what to do with. Sinéad scribbled a few lyrics and bang! She left us completely choked up." So taken was the band with O'Connor's song, "Release," that they used the name for the title of their album. Volume 2: Release hit the music stores in 1999, and by the spring of 2000 it had sold more than half a million copies worldwide.

By then the Afro Celt Sound System was in demand as a live band that not only made people dance but also connected with audiences around the world. In 2000 the group was nominated for a Grammy Award in the Best World Music category. The band, composed at the time of eight members from six countries (England, Senegal, Guinea, Ireland, France, and Kenya), took pride in its ability to bring people together through music. "We can communicate anywhere at any corner of the planet and feel that we're at home," McNally told Patrick MacDonald of The Seattle Times. "We're breaking down categories of world music and rock music and black music. We leave a door open to communicate with each other's traditions. And it's changed our lives".

In 2001 the group released Volume 3: Further in Time, which climbed to number one on Billboard's Top World Music Albums chart. Featuring guest spots by Peter Gabriel and Robert Plant, the album also incorporated a heightened African sound. "On the first two records, the pendulum swung more toward the Celtic, London club side of the equation," Emmerson told the Irish Times's Carroll. "For this one, I wanted to have more African vocals and input than we'd done before." Again the Afro Celt Sound System met with success. Chuck Taylor of Billboard magazine praised the album as "a cultural phenomenon that bursts past the traditional boundaries of contemporary music." The single "When You're Falling", with vocals by Gabriel, became a radio hit in the United States.

In 2003 they changed their name to the simpler Afrocelts (this is now viewed by the band as having been a mistake) ; however, two of their latest albums, Pod, a compilation of new mixes of songs from the first four albums, and their fifth studio album Anatomic, used the long and familiar form. Around the world they seem better known as Afro Celt Sound System.

They played a number of shows to promote Anatomic in 2006 and summer 2007, ending with a gig in Korea, before taking an extended break to work on side projects. The most notable of these was The Imagined Village featuring Simon Emmerson and Johnny Kalsi. In summer 2010, the band commenced a series of live shows to tie in with a new 2-CD album CAPTURE : Afro Celt Sound System 1995-2010, released on 6 September 2010 on Real World Records.