Ghost Singers

A new, aptly named and somewhat enigmatic project helmed by Glasgow-based songwriter Brian O’Neill featuring a collective of musicians who have never met in person. In the style of Soulsavers or Soundwalk Collective, Ghost Singers is a showcase for an array of international guest vocalists from Canada, Brazil, England, Spain and South Africa, among other locations. They’ve all been handpicked by O’Neill via YouTube to sing his fragile, haunting songs about mental illness, addiction, faith and recovery. O’Neill has been through the mill: a suicide survivor testifying to the power of healing through music. New album Schizophrenic Lovesick Blues is out now, preceded by the singles ‘Remember When I’ and ‘Takes Like Muddy Waters’, sung by Australian Filipino Beloved Abe and Christy Harrington (pictured) from Colorado, respectively. 

Lloyd’s House

Another initially solitary project which has grown arms and legs and headset mics since its lockdown inception as a vehicle for Glasgow-based lo-fi indie artist Lloyd Ledingham. Emerging from his bedroom post-pandemic, he formed a band with guitarist Eilidh O’Brien, bassist Aaron Bisset, drummer Sean Mitchell and keyboard player Reece Robertson to give his low-key songs more pop fizz and harmonic punch. Latest EP The Masochist, produced by former Catholic Action frontman Chris McCrory, was released in October with lead single ‘Ribbons’ boasting gonzo shades of Super Furry Animals and a video featuring the band formation-dancing on the stage at Barrowland.

Pippa Blundell

Singer-songwriter Pippa Blundell has lately emerged from the Royal Conservatoire Of Scotland’s creative hotbed. There she studied classical voice before choosing to divert from opera to sing with the Glasgow African Balafon Orchestra and perform her own songs of a folkier hue. Blundell has had a busy autumn around the release of her debut EP Sisters, touring as opening act for young jazz dynamos corto.alto and basking in her nomination for the SAY Award’s Sound Of Young Scotland.

Charlie Grey

Charlie Grey has been playing fiddle since the age of five, so is maybe not such a new artist. But having performed with pianist partner Joseph Peach and their band Westward The Light, Grey now emerges in his own right as one of Celtic Connections’ 2024 New Voices commissions, drawing on a well of Highland heritage (his grandmother was Gaelic legend Ishbel MacAskill and he inherited his first fiddle from his great uncle). He now plays a bespoke ten-string hardanger d’amore fiddle, to be heard in action in the Strathclyde Suite of Glasgow’s Royal Concert Hall on Sunday 4 February.

Edy Forey

Judging by the talent they’ve drafted in for their forthcoming debut album, Edinburgh-based jazz duo Edy Forey (vocalist Edy Szewy and pianist Guilhem Forey) have an impressive contacts book. Ezra Collective drummer Femi Koleoso appears on current gospel soul single ‘The Fire’, engineered by Erykah Badu/Tribe Called Quest producer Bob Power, while Snarky Puppy mainman Michael League and saxophonist Bob Reynolds are among other primo associates contributing to the album Culture Today which is due for a 2024 release. 

Keep an eye out for our monthly Future Sound column on acts to watch in 2024.