Aerialists at The Carleton

JUNO-nominated neo-trad quintet Aerialists are back in Halifax at The Carleton for the first time since 2017 to celebrate the release of their new album I Lost My Heart On Friday on Sunday March 2nd. With fiddle harp guitar bass and drums their adventurous re-imaginings of traditional music spiral outward into progressive electrified soundscapes. Show time is 7pm and tickets are $20 + HST.

At one moment a prog-rock band the next an Irish-Scottish-Norwegian trad band then an experimental indie-jazz band then somehow all of these at once Aerialists have alchemized diverse influences into a sound with striking clarity. It’s ethereal yet precise technical yet visceral. Aerialists emerged from the new acoustic scene at Berklee College of Music nearly a decade ago born from the creative affinity between harpist Màiri Chaimbeul fiddler Elise Boeur and guitarist Adam Iredale-Gray. Now with three albums a JUNO nomination and Canadian Folk Music Award for Pushing The Boundaries under their belt Aerialists have staked their claim on the leading edge of the neo-folk world.

The band’s arrangements assert the belief that a harp can groove like a drum kit that a fiddle can be more ferocious than a distorted electric guitar and that traditional tunes are sturdy and flexible enough to thrive in the seemingly inhospitable landscape of indie-rock instrumentation. Their new record I Lost My Heart On Friday is a celebration of their deep roots in Scottish Irish and Nordic folk traditions seen through a distinctly Canadian lens.

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