After picking up a batch of folk awards, this Scottish five-piece have been touring the world with impressive results. Astar is Scottish Gaelic for “journey”, and this classy travelogue is remarkable for its variety of collaborations. The band is best known for featuring highland bagpipes along with fiddle, guitar, whistles and double bass, but this is Scottish-influenced global fusion. The bravest track, The White Sands of Jervis Bay, starts with a powerful ceremonial song from the Australian Aboriginal singer Yirrmal Marika from the Black Arm Band, backed by yidaki didgeridoo, then segues into a lament from fiddler Megan Henderson. On Muriwai, a jaunty pipe tune eases into a gutsy New Zealand Maori haka from Scott Morrison, while elsewhere there’s Quebecois fiddle from Olivier Demers and Norwegian hardanger fiddle from Olav Luksengård Mjelva, who contributes to an emotional treatment of Dick Gaughan’s on-the-road ballad Outlaws and Dreamers.
