Effervescent folk played on fiddle, bouzouki, double bass, and a newly invented bagpipe. Hair tingling, heart-wrenching and dance-inducing melodies inspired by European folk traditions, humans, queerness, and the universe. Malin Lewis is a queer bagpiper, fiddler, composer, instrument maker, and BBC Young Traditional Musician of the Year finalist for 2022. Malin premiered their New Voices commission “Halocline” with a seven-piece band at Celtic Connections 2023 to a sold out Strathclyde Suite at Glasgow’s Royal Concert Hall. “Halocline” will become Malin’s long-awaited debut album. Named for the layer between salt and fresh water, “Halocline” is a sequence of compositions reflecting on the liminal spaces between Malin’s outer and inner worlds as a trans person. Malin plays a set of unique, self-made two octave smallpipes that help create their unique sounds. The trio will perform original music from “Halocline” as well as traditional music from Finland, Spain, and Bulgaria. Recently Malin has been touring the U.K. with Making Tracks international Residency, Recording film music in Berlin, studying folk music in Helsinki, and learning the tradition of the extinct Finnish bagpipes as well as writing and performing music for “The Strange Undoing of Prudencia Hart” at the Royal Exchange Theatre, Manchester.

Tha Malin Lewis nam pìobaire, fìdhlear, ionnsramaidear agus sgrìobhaiche-ciùil cuèir a tha air duaisean a chosnadh airson an cuid ciùil. Tha iad am measg cheòladairean na h-Alba a tha a’ stiùireadh ceòl traidiseanta air rathaidean ùra – bidh Malin a’ tarraing an t-seann nós agus ceòl ùr dealanach ri chéile air pìob shònraichte dà ochdach a rinn iad fhéin. ’S e ceòl togarrach agus feallsanachail a bhios iad a’ cluich, a’ toirt ort dannsadh agus meòrachadh air daoine, daonnachd agus an domhain.

Chaidh pìos de cheòl ùr a sgrìobh Malin, ‘Halocline’, a chluich airson a’ chiad uair airson a’ choimisein ‘New Voices’ aig Celtic Connections am bliadhna (2023). ’S e ‘halocline’ an t-ainm a th’ air an uisge a tha eadar bùrn is sàl agus bidh an aon ainm air a’ chiad chlàr aig Malin a tha ri thighinn a-mach a dh’aithghearr. Tha an cuspair a’ buntainn ri beatha Mhalin agus an stairsneach a tha eadar an t-saoghal a-staigh is an t-saoghal a-muigh aca mar neach tar-ghnèitheach.

Tha ceangal anabarrach làidir eadar Malin agus na h-ionnsramaidean a rinn iad is tha seo a’ toirt buaidh shònraichte air a’ cheòl aca. Bidh an còmhlan aca a’ cluich ciùil bho ‘Halocline’ maille ri ceòl traidiseanta ás an Fhionnlainn, Spàinn agus a’ Bhulgair. Tha Malin air a bhith air chuairt còmhla ris a’ phròiseact eadar-nàiseanta ‘Making Tracks’ a’ clàradh ciùil do fhiolman, ag ionnsachadh mu thraidiseanan na pìoba Fionnlannach, a’ sgrìobhadh ciùil do dhannsairean aig Saddlers Wells agus ag obair mar stiùiriche- agus sgrìobhaiche-ciùil air ‘The strange Undoing of Prudencia Hart’ aig an Taigh-chluiche Manchester Royal Exchange.