New Grey CD Officially Released November 16

Shambolica!, the latest recording from piper Michael Grey of Dundas, Ontario, will be officially released on November 16 by Dunaber Music.

The recording is the product of over two years’ work and features the talents of many well known Celtic and mainstream musicians from the Toronto area, including vocalist/songwriter Jane Siberry, guitarist Kurt Swinghammer, fiddler Oliver Schroer, Gaelic chanteuse Glenna Mackay-Johnstone and musicians of the Canadian Opera Company.

“Shambolica! has been a musical vision of mine for over two years,” said Grey. “The final product is unlike anything previously done with the Highland bagpipe as a central musical voice, and to have such renowned artists pool their talents with me is completely gratifying.”

Shambolica! reportedly features an array of composition styles that merge the Highland bagpipe with other popular and traditional forms. From Chemical Brothers-inspired industrial to Oscar Peterson-style jazz piano to an original orchestral composition embodying Robert Burns’s epic poem, “Tam o’ Shanter,” the recording covers a range of musical forms and tastes.

“To sing in Gaelic for Canadian/Scottish bagpiper Michael Grey’s recording Shambolica! was a strange experience for my heretofore-and-still-only-partially-activated Celtic blood,” said Siberry. “Hearing Gaelic is much different than sending it across the lips. The almost spell-like Celtic soundings ran through my dreams for days – hissing and spitting like snakes.”

Michael Grey and Jane Siberry’s artistic partnership on a new arrangement of the Gaelic song, “The Nut Brown Maid,” was selected by Siberry for City, her latest compilation released in October 2001 on the Sheeba recording label.

Grey’s CD reportedly features a total of 11 tracks, with musical styles ranging from orchestral to industrial.

A preview clip from Shambolica!: “Sergeant Malkie Bow’s Consternation”.

Grey’s recording comes at a time when Highland piping and Celtic music are at peak popularity on the world music scene.

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