Kate and Corwen

Our duo is Kate Fletcher (vocals, double reeds, strings) and Corwen ap Broch (pipes, whistles, bowed instruments, percussion).

Our music is rooted in the British folk tradition, though a strong Nordic influence and an attraction to the ancient past adds a darker edge.

Never afraid to sing all the verses of a long ballad, or play newly composed material on long forgotten instruments, our music has been described as 'hypno folk'. We aim to make music that their ancestors would understand and appreciate.

If you peer through the layers of folklore and listen for hints in the extant oral traditions still alive on the fringes of Europe, maybe you can catch a glimpse of how our ancestors heard music, and saw the world. In a world full of noise and machines, bright lights and flickering images, it's easy to forget what music can do.

Influenced by Faroese tradition, the Kalevala, Sean Nos singing and Anglo-Saxon and Celtic Poetry, we seek to rediscover the lost epics of the British Isles and bring them to a modern audience. Ballads become trance-dances, work songs become spells and forgotten instruments speak again taking us into a strange world of mythology and folk belief.

Though drawing on many influences, we are determined that our music should remain at its heart, deeply British, rooted in these Islands. Pipe and Tabor is not lost among the sounds of Kantele or Spilapipa, the Welsh Pibgorn and Crwth rub shoulders with the Gusli and Sruti Box.

Looking outwards can be a way of looking deeper into British tradition. How did the Anglo Saxons play their lyres? We do not know, but perhaps we can learn from the Finnish Kantele tradition. How was the Shetland Gue played? We do not know, but its brothers the Tallharpa and Jouhikko give us clues. Like many First Nations Peoples we can learn about our deep selves from the traditions of our neighbours, some of whom still remember what we have forgotten...

In addition we conduct engaging hands-on workshops in Dark Ages Music and Culture, for children and adults, please see the Teaching and Workshops part of this website.

We also play historical music in authentic costumes and on authentic instruments, specialising in the music of the Dark Ages and Early Medieval Period and the Napoleonic War.