Brìghde Chaimbeul plays Scottish smallpipes, a bellows-blown bagpipe that can sustain a constant drone. Her third album Sunwise is built around that drone, but it's also a record about winter darkness, folklore, and turning inward. The whole thing moves at a slow, deliberate pace. Single notes hang and overlap. Melodies emerge from field recordings sourced at the School of Scottish Studies in Edinburgh, mostly traditional tunes arranged by Chaimbeul herself.
This is more a solo record than its predecessor. She recorded her parts alone, then added collaborators after. Colin Stetson appears on A Chailleach, where she also sings a little. Her father recites a Hogmanay rhyme on Duan. Her brother joins her voice on the closing track, a short song in canntaireachd style. The music is minimal and repetitive. The drone never leaves. It's not background music. You have to listen to the grain of the pipes, the way the tone shifts, the slight variations in pressure. That's where the life is.
Sunwise comes two years after Carry Them With Us, which won a fair bit of attention. This one is darker, more inward, more rooted in the old calendar and the turning seasons. If you liked her previous work or the meditative side of Scottish folk, it will find you.
