Kelpie
Kelpie
Kelpie

Videos

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  • country:Norway
  • region:Northern Europe
  • style(s):Folk, Acoustic
  • label:Westpark Music
  • type:Solo, Composer/Songwriter
  • gender:male, female
  • instrumentation:instrumental, vocal
  • artist posted by:Westpark Music

Line up

  • Ian Melrose (vocals, guitar, low whistles, seljefløyte, whistle)
  • Kerstin Blodig (vocals, guitar, bouzouki, bodhrán, bass-maker)

Kerstin and Ian founded the duo Kelpie in 1997. After a total of 15 years of playing together in different projects and on many CD productions they are an experienced and totally synchronized team, who effortlessly understand each other and can react to the slightest nuances in each other's playing. This quality is particularly evident in their live concerts, which have earned them an international reputation. The legendary "Kelpie-wall-of-sound", this opulent acoustic orchestration impresses with carefully crafted guitar and vocal arrangements, the varied use of ethnic flutes, bodhran, bouzouki and the sparse but effective use of bass-maker, delay-effects and foot percussion. It's hard to believe there are only two people playing

Kerstin Blodig
studied musicology and Scandinavian languages and cultures in Berlin (Germany) and in Bergen (Norway) with particular emphasis on Norwegian folk music.
She is involved in a wide variety of different projects, ranging from studio work, folk-pop and theatre music productions to the Celtic groups Norland Wind, Talking Water and Touchwood with Belfast musician Cristina Crawley.

She cultivates her Norwegian roots not only with Kelpie, but also in her solo project "Trollsang", her solo performances and her Celtic-Scandinavian world-music project Valivann. Her solo-CD "Valivann" has won the renowned German Critics Prize (May 2002) in the field of world-music/ folk.

"Blodig impressed us with one of the most expressive voices I've ever heard" (Glamdalen, Norway)

Ian Melrose
from Ayr in the Southwest of Scotland, belongs to the cream of Europe's acoustic guitarists. He is an internationally acclaimed composer and arranger, lead guitarist with Clannad (World Tour, Grammy Award winning CD "Landmarks"), and plays with Kerstin also in Norland Wind and Talking Water.

A major aspect of his work is solo guitar: based on Celtic finger-picking style, his compositions blend Irish dances, Scottish ballads and classical formats with Brazilian samba and Argentine tango to create real world-music on the guitar. His solo CDs, "Wolves", "Between the Sighs" and most recently, "A Scottish Legacy", have gained him rave reviews in the international music press.

"...top-class guitarist ...brilliant fingerpicker..." The Times (GB)
"...one of the best Celtic-based fingerpickers on the scene today" Acoustic Guitar (USA)

Records

"Schneetreiben" - Kelpie