Martin Swan (born

Sheffield Sheffield is a city in South Yorkshire, England, whose name derives from the River Sheaf which runs through it. The city serves as the administrative centre of the City of Sheffield. It is historically part of the West Riding of Yorkshire a ...

, England) is a Scottish multi-instrumentalist, songwriter, composer, record producer, recording engineer and instrument designer. Swan is best known as the leader of the Mouth Music project, whose combination of traditional Gaelic songs and music with contemporary instrumental and technological settings led them to international fame and number 1 placings in world music sales charts in the early 1990s. His multi-instrumental skills and his approach towards the making of

folk music Folk music is a music genre that includes traditional folk music and the contemporary genre that evolved from the former during the 20th-century folk revival. Some types of folk music may be called world music. Traditional folk music has b ...

(eclectic, restless and frequently non-purist) has seen him compared to a folk music version of

Prince A prince is a male ruler (ranked below a king, grand prince, and grand duke) or a male member of a monarch's or former monarch's family. ''Prince'' is also a title of nobility (often highest), often hereditary, in some European states. T ...

. Swan is also involved in the restoration, manufacture and design of string instruments. Though born in England, Swan is of Scottish descent and identifies as Scottish.

Musical abilities

Martin Swan is known to play the following instruments: *Stringed instruments: fiddle, acoustic and electric guitars, bass guitar,

dulcimer The word dulcimer refers to two families of musical string instruments. Hammered dulcimers The word ''dulcimer'' originally referred to a trapezoidal zither similar to a psaltery whose many strings are struck by handheld "hammers". Variants of ...

, hammered dulcimer,

bowed psaltery The bowed psaltery is a type of psaltery or zither that is played with a bow. In contrast with the centuries-old plucked psaltery, the bowed psaltery appears to be a 20th-century invention. History Violin zither In 1925 a German patent was issu ...

berimbau The berimbau () is a single-string percussion instrument, a musical bow, originally from Africa, that is now commonly used in Brazil. The berimbau would eventually be incorporated into the practice of the Afro-Brazilian martial art ''capoeir ...

erhu The ''erhu'' (; ) is a Chinese two-stringed bowed musical instrument, more specifically a spike fiddle, which may also be called a ''Southern Fiddle'', and is sometimes known in the Western world as the ''Chinese violin'' or a ''Chinese two- ...

*Keyboard instruments: keyboards/synthesizers, accordion *Wind instruments:

concert flute The Western concert flute is a family of transverse (side-blown) woodwind instruments made of metal or wood. It is the most common variant of the flute. A musician who plays the flute is called a flautist (in British English), flutist (in Ame ...

low whistle The low whistle, or concert whistle, is a variation of the traditional tin whistle/pennywhistle, distinguished by its lower pitch and larger size. It is most closely associated with the performances of British and Irish artists such as Tommy Make ...

, block flute,

bamboo flute The bamboo flute, especially the bone flute, is one of the oldest musical instruments known. Examples of Paleolithic bone flutes have survived for more than 40,000 years, to be discovered by archaeologists. While the oldest flutes currently kn ...

shawm The shawm () is a conical bore, double-reed woodwind instrument made in Europe from the 12th century to the present day. It achieved its peak of popularity during the medieval and Renaissance periods, after which it was gradually eclipsed by th ...

*Acoustic percussion: drum kit, bass drum,

tambourine The tambourine is a musical instrument in the percussion family consisting of a frame, often of wood or plastic, with pairs of small metal jingles, called "zills". Classically the term tambourine denotes an instrument with a drumhead, though ...

maracas A maraca (), sometimes called shaker or chac-chac, is a rattle which appears in many genres of Caribbean and Latin music. It is shaken by a handle and usually played as part of a pair. Maracas (from Guaraní ), also known as tamaracas, were ...

, conga,

tabla A tabla, bn, তবলা, prs, طبلا, gu, તબલા, hi, तबला, kn, ತಬಲಾ, ml, തബല, mr, तबला, ne, तबला, or, ତବଲା, ps, طبله, pa, ਤਬਲਾ, ta, தபலா, te, తబల� ...

timbales Timbales () or pailas are shallow single-headed drums with metal casing. They are shallower than single-headed tom-toms and usually tuned much higher, especially for their size.Orovio, Helio 1981. ''Diccionario de la música cubana: biográfico ...

triangle A triangle is a polygon with three edges and three vertices. It is one of the basic shapes in geometry. A triangle with vertices ''A'', ''B'', and ''C'' is denoted \triangle ABC. In Euclidean geometry, any three points, when non- colline ...

darbouka The goblet drum (also chalice drum, tarabuka, tarabaki, darbuka, darabuka, derbake, debuka, doumbek, dumbec, dumbeg, dumbelek, toumperleki, tumbak, or zerbaghali; arz, دربوكة / Romanized: ) is a single-head membranophone with a goblet-s ...

, djembe,

cowbell A cowbell (or cow bell) is a bell worn around the neck of free-roaming livestock so herders can keep track of an animal via the sound of the bell when the animal is grazing out of view in hilly landscapes or vast plains. Although they are t ...

xylophone The xylophone (; ) is a musical instrument in the percussion family that consists of wooden bars struck by mallets. Like the glockenspiel (which uses metal bars), the xylophone essentially consists of a set of tuned wooden keys arranged in ...

, bells,

calabash Calabash (; ''Lagenaria siceraria''), also known as bottle gourd, white-flowered gourd, long melon, birdhouse gourd, New Guinea bean, Tasmania bean, and opo squash, is a vine grown for its fruit. It can be either harvested young to be consumed ...

mbira Mbira ( ) are a family of musical instruments, traditional to the Shona people of Zimbabwe. They consist of a wooden board (often fitted with a resonator) with attached staggered metal tines, played by holding the instrument in the hands and p ...

, shaker,

cabassa The cabasa, similar to the shekere, is a percussion instrument that is constructed with loops of steel ball chain wrapped around a wooden cylinder. The cylinder is fixed to a long, wooden or plastic handle. The metal cabasa was created by Mart ...

, cuica *Electronics: electronic percussion, synthesizer programming, rhythm programming. Swan also sings (mostly backing vocals, but more recently lead vocals) and whistles, and is a skilled musical arranger.

Musical projects

Mouth Music

Swan has been the only consistent member of the musical project Mouth Music since its inception in 1988. Initially an equal partner with singer Talitha MacKenzie, he asserted control over the project following disagreements with MacKenzie and her subsequent departure in 1991 (MacKenzie has continued to challenge Swan's view of the "Mouth Music" concept). Since then Swan has presided over a variety of line-ups, working with musicians including Capercaillie/

Shooglenifty Shooglenifty are a Scottish, Edinburgh-based six-piece Celtic fusion band that tours internationally. The band blends Scottish traditional music with influences ranging from electronica to alternative rock. They contributed to Afro Celt Sound S ...

drummer

James Mackintosh Sir James Mackintosh FRS FRSE (24 October 1765 – 30 May 1832) was a Scottish jurist, Whig politician and Whig historian. His studies and sympathies embraced many interests. He was trained as a doctor and barrister, and worked also as a jo ...

, pipe/flute/fiddle player

Martyn Bennett Martyn Bennett (17 February 1971 – 30 January 2005) was a Canadian-Scottish musician who was influential in the evolution of modern Celtic fusion, a blending of traditional Celtic and modern music. He was a piper, violinist, composer and prod ...

, fiddler Alison Crawford and singers Jackie Joyce (aka

Helicopter Girl Helicopter Girl (born 15 August 1963) is the stage name of Jacqueline Margaret “Jackie” Joyce, a musician from Perth, Scotland. She was born to a Scottish mother and Ghanaian father. She was previously a member of the groups Mouth Music an ...

), Martin Furey, Mairi McInnes,

Ishbel MacAskill Isabella Margaret MacAskill (née MacIver, 14 March 1941 – 31 March 2011) was a heritage activist and traditional Scottish Gaelic singer and teacher, often referred to as the "Gaelic diva". Early life She was born in Loanhead, near Edinburgh ...

and Michaela Rowan. Over the course of six albums and one EP, Mouth Music's music has spanned a wide variety of styles from traditional Celtic music to worldbeat, funk, electronic dance, "fiddle fusion" and more.

Ambisonic

Swan was half of the electronic pop duo Ambisonic (alongside singer Jackie Joyce), who released one album, ''Ecohero'' on Nation Records in 1997. The project was a spin-off from the third Mouth Music line-up, in which Joyce was lead singer and Swan's main co-writer and creative foil.

Kries

Swan plays fiddle for the Croatian band Kries (led by ex-Legen frontman Mojmir Novakovic). He appears on the band's second album ''Kocijani'' (which he also produced and mixed).

Stobo Village Band

In 2008, Swan began working with the Stobo Village Band, which is described as playing "fast hypnotic acoustic dance music with fiddle, pipes, accordion, tapan and darabuka, mashing up Scottish/Irish tune playing with the virtuoso traditions of eastern Europe and the Balkans." The band's line-up is Martin Swan (fiddle), Lewis Powell-Reid (accordion, guitar), Ross Ainslie (whistle, pipes,

cittern The cittern or cithren ( Fr. ''cistre'', It. ''cetra'', Ger. ''Cister,'' Sp. ''cistro, cedra, cítola'') is a stringed instrument dating from the Renaissance. Modern scholars debate its exact history, but it is generally accepted that it is d ...

), James Mackintosh (percussion) and Fraser Watson (percussion), Mackintosh has previously worked with Swan in Mouth Music. The band made their public debut on 16 January 2008 (at the Celtic Connections concert series in

Glasgow Glasgow ( ; sco, Glesca or ; gd, Glaschu ) is the most populous city in Scotland and the fourth-most populous city in the United Kingdom, as well as being the 27th largest city by population in Europe. In 2020, it had an estimated popul ...

) and have continued to play ceilidhs around the Scottish Borders region.

Zykopops

In 2010, Martin Swan started a "trash folk" band called Zykopops, based in Croatia. Their first live performance was in Zagreb, in October 2010. The band's slogan ("Zykopops... worse than Turbofolk!") is apparently already gaining them notoriety throughout the Balkans. Zykopops rework classic and obscure traditional songs from Croatia, Serbia, Macedonia and Hungary using a punk- and hip-hop-inflected style which they call "''

rakija Rakia, Rakija, Rachiu or Raki (), is the collective term for fruit spirits (or fruit brandy) popular in the Balkans. The alcohol content of rakia is normally 40% ABV, but home-produced rakia can be stronger (typically 50%). Etymology Fruit sp ...

music''" and which includes "'' Ramones tempos and

Hajduk A hajduk ( hu, hajdúk, plural of ) is a type of irregular infantry found in Central and parts of Southeast Europe from the late 16th to mid 19th centuries. They have reputations ranging from bandits to freedom fighters depending on time, p ...

virtuoso nonsense.''" The group's stated aim is to "''achieve a state of rabbit-ness and to infect others with equal rabbit-ness.''" Swan plays violin in the band, which is fronted by Lidija Dokuzovic and also features hip-hoppers Erol Zejnilovic and Konrad Lovrencic, along with "''a random crew of percussionists, beatboxers and physical therapists''" including Nenad Kovacic and Ante Prgin-Surka.

Selected work as producer and engineer

In 1998, Swan remixed

's '' Bothy Culture'' album. In 2003, Swan produced and engineered Martin Furey's debut solo album ''Howl'' (on which he also played guitar using Furey's invention, th
Varichord capo
. In 2006, Swan produced and engineered Nuru Kane's widely admired ''Sigil'' album (on which he also played violin and accordion). In 2007, Swan produced and mixed the second Kries album ''Kocijani'' (released in 2008).

Work in instrument restoration and design

In the mid 1990s Swan moved to the Scottish Borders and developed a second career as a woodworker (carpenter, cabinet maker and violin restorer).Hinges pop-up on Mouth Music homepage
retrieved 7 December 2008 After cutting off the top of a finger with a woodworking machine in 2008, he decided to give up the large-scale carpentry and concentrate on restoring old violins. He soon became fascinated and exasperated by the variations in tonal quality of old violins and started researching the methods of Eastern European violin makers. This led to him designing

travelling to Transylvania to choose tonewood and developing friendships with the Hungarian luthiers who now make the instruments for him.

Discography (excluding compilations)

with Mouth Music

*''Mouth Music'' (1991) 1990 (Triple Earth/Rykodisc *''Blue Door Green Sea'' EP (1992) *''Mo-Di'' (1993) Triple Earth/Rykodisc *''Move On'' EP (1994) *''Shorelife'' (1995) Triple Earth *''Seafaring Man'' (2001) (Meta 4/Nettwerk) *''The Scrape'' (2003) (Skitteesh) *''The Order of Things'' (2005) (Skitteesh)

with Ambisonic

*''Ecohero'' (1997, Nation Records)

with Kries

*''Kocijani'' (2008, Kopito Records)

References

External links

Martin Swan Violins homepage
{{DEFAULTSORT:Swan, Martin Scottish record producers Scottish fiddlers British male violinists Scottish electronic musicians Living people Year of birth missing (living people) Musicians from Sheffield 21st-century violinists 21st-century British male musicians