The Breath

Nominated for two BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards 2019, Rioghnach Connolly and Stuart McCallum are the creative heart of bewitching Manchester alt-folk act The Breath. And for them, it's all about the song.

Connolly writes the only way she knows how; a stream of poetic consciousness giving rise to honest, personal, heartfelt songs as likely to touch on childhood summers and first love as cultural dislocation, post-colonial injustices and grief. But it's her deeply soulful, utterly engaging, stop-you-in-your-tracks voice - whether delicate and hushed or powerful and gutsy - coupled with Stuart's understated brilliance and their exquisitely crafted songs, that give The Breath such emotional depth.

McCallum's fellow Manchester-based Cinematic Orchestra bandmates - pianist John Ellis, bassist Sam Vickery and drummer Luke Flowers - have all contributed to The Breath's trademark mature, widescreen, multi-textured kaleidoscope sound.