This acclaimed debut album makes a remarkable and unique fusion, as Martin Swan and Talitha MacKenzie mix the "mouth music" -- puirt-a-beul -- of Gaelic Scotland with the polyrhythms of Africa, aided by the liberating influence of keyboard technology and samples.
Swan's unorthodox approach to composition and MacKenzie's vocal (ir)reverence succeed through their effective "abuse of source material," for which Swan cites David Byrne's and Brian Eno's MY LIFE IN THE BUSH OF GHOSTS as a strong influence. " It's a matter of finding a strong rhythm which complements (the traditional song structures) and then creating some kind of tension or powerful or surprising harmonic context in which they happen....(I try to find an) environment in which that song becomes even stronger than it is."
Swan and MacKenzie based MOUTH MUSIC on traditional Gaelic source materials, much of which MacKenzie first discovered when she traveled to Edinburgh to study Scottish and Gaelic culture in depth. "There's something about ancient Gaelic songs that's different....straight from the heart and very intense," says MacKenzie. MOUTH MUSIC is that and more, creating something very new from something ancient.
