'CELTISH' is the title of the first recording we (Nigel & Julie) made of our own unique sound and was the third project to be recorded under our 'Sounds of Wonder' record label. 

It takes the form of an instrumental album featuring Celtic melodies that we love and powerful new compositions, played on Irish whistles and fiddle/violin.

A brief look at the output from the husband and wife team of Nigel Cameron and Julie Cameron-Hall shows an impressive array of projects all brought together through their Sounds Of Wonder label.

Whether it is worship music with their international group The Worship Company, classical improvisation with their group Epiphany or Julie's work on baby music they are always looking for ways to use music to help people connect with God. 

'Celtish' is the first instrumental album released through Sounds Of Wonder in 2016 and also acts as the banner under which they perform their Celtic inspired work. Prior to forming this project, both Nigel and Julie had been influenced by Celtic music with Belfast native Nigel a percussionist and Irish whistle player and Julie a classically trained violinist who released a number of folk albums earlier in her career. 

The album features a selection of classic Celtic tunes as well as some original compositions and draws on a wide range of instrumentation beyond Julie's violin and Nigel's Irish whistle featuring contributions from a number of musicians including regular collaborator Dave Bainbridge (Iona). 

The choice of tracks is a great blend of the ancient Celtic tunes such as "With My Love On The Road", known as the tune of "Be Thou My Vision", and more modern Celtic rock inspired compositions with Nigel Cameron's own "Celtic Jubilee" adding drums and electric guitar to the mix. Clearly a lot of thought has gone into the arrangements on each track, carefully selecting the pallet to paint a picture in sound. 

There are moments of delicate simplicity with just the whistle over a backdrop of synths on tracks like "Midnight Walker" or "Dunluce". The traditional Irish slip jig "The Butterfly" shows a playful side creating a sense of fun through the interplay between the whistle, violin and guitar. 

There is a real spiritual feel throughout the album as it washes over you leaving a feeling of peace and joy through the uplifting sounds beautiful soaring arrangements. I would recommend getting hold of a physical copy of this album as the sleeve notes provide an excellent accompaniment, offering fascinating insight into the background of each track.                                                         

                                                                                                                  9/10 Cross Rhythms

It's a long way from Belfast to Letterkenny. We wanted to get home early but unfortunately we couldn't because Adrian Thompson's amp blew up in rehearsal, and he needed to use our Peavey 50W Bandit. That was a great training ground: I loved to experiment. I started on drums and ended up the lead singer and then keyboard player. It was discovery of Celtic rock that got me into folk music by the back door - Gary Moore, Thin Lizzy, the early days of Sammy Horner doing his 'Celtic Praise'. There's a passion in that sound.

When we were in the bass player's house one night trying this acoustic song called "Yesterday's Heroes" about the Beatles and Led Zeppelin going to Hell, the bass player gave me this tin whistle and said, 'I can't get much of a tune out of that. Can you?' I started to play this on one acoustic song in the set, and - I said this in the sleevenotes to our 'Celtish' album - he doesn't realise what he started in me, because the tin whistle, getting onto the low whistles, gave me an expression for my heart at different times in my life. The bending notes and the tone of that Celtic sound resonate deeply. It's like the sound of the land - a really ancient sound. It's given us this sound. When I come to England and play the whistle, I can do no wrong. I always apologised for playing it in Ireland. I grew up believing I wasn't a proper Celtic musician because I couldn't play a reel or a jig. People say, 'You're from Ireland - play us a jig.' Immediately I shut down. You don't play Celtic music if you're brought up a Protestant.

This is the thing about Ireland and this division over 'religion'. It's not just religion, it's sport and it's music. When I moved churches in my early 20s, it was a saviour for me. We could only play music twice in the year: on Children's Day and at Christmas services. But when I moved to a very open Baptist church, almost the second week I was there they discovered I could play some instruments, and I started using whistles in worship. Wind on 10, 15 years, I had a one-day-a-week paid position in the church as music director and always would try and weave a bit of the Celtic sound into worship. It's only since marrying Julie and her being a fiddle player and having recorded folk albums and having a beautiful voice, the different streams we follow in, we just love to do it all the time.

Tony: The first album you recorded together was simply called 'Celtish' and it was instrumental. Tell me about it.

Nigel: It was all about celebrating my influences. The clincher for doing this album was remembering a little bit of a melody that I'd come up with myself and has been in my head 25 years, inspired by the genre of Celtic rock. We ended up calling it "Celtic Jubilee" and it's the opening track on the album. Amazingly, we got Dave Bainbridge from the band Iona to put his mark on it. He's played on a few of our albums. I gave him a few of the references - Thin Lizzy and Gary Moore, but this is a violin and whistle sort of melody - and he added all his textured sounds. He gave us so much electric guitar and bouzouki - so many layers, wonderful stuff - that we made it into two tracks. People who read the sleevenotes to that album, even though it's instrumental - we have weaved testimony and prayers for the listeners that they would let the power of the music minister peace and healing into them. That's why I believe that it's a Christian album.