Carmina

Carmina’s music fuses folk, jazz and Celtic themes in powerful original songs. The band was formed in Bristol in the early 1990s when founder-members and award-winning songwriters Rob King (acoustic guitar, mandola, bodhran) and Pippa Marland (vocals, alto and soprano sax, Irish whistles) began writing songs together.


Carmina have toured internationally, including appearances at Cork Jazz Festival, The World Fleadh, Sydney St Patrick’s Day Parade, Glastonbury Festival, Edinburgh Fringe Festival and Madrid Folk Festival. They have released six albums, two of them recorded in Dublin and produced by Irish music legend Donal Lunny (Planxty, Moving Hearts). Previously published by Rough Trade, Carmina's repertoire is now with Peter Gabriel's Real World Music Publishing and their most recent album, Landmarks, was recorded at Real World Studios.

Over the years Pippa and Rob have played with a cast of brilliant musicians, often drawn from either the jazz world or Irish traditional music, including the late, great pianists Pete Jacobsen and Geoff Castle, who are dearly remembered and much missed, Richie Buckley, Diarmaid Moynihan, Nic France, Julian Nicholas, Gina Griffin, Nigel Thomas, Brian Morrissey, Ben Groenevelt, Adam Gittins, Vicki Burke, Roy Dodds, Dudley Phillips, Chris Haigh, James Blennerhasset, Brian Connor and Dave Goodier.


The current line-up, Carmina3, features Pippa, Rob and virtuoso singer and guitarist Paul Bradley. Hailing from the North of Ireland, Paul has been with the band for over ten years and the trio is celebrated for Pippa and Paul’s beautiful vocal harmonies and Paul and Rob’s stunning interplay on acoustic and electric guitar. 

  • 'Glorious... gorgeously haunting' - Time Out;
  • 'Powerful and spiritually uplifting' - The Guardian; '
  • Jazz, folk and celtic fusion that mesmerises and bewitches' - Irish Times;
  • ‘gorgeously rich depth of colour’ - Hot Press; ALBUM OF THE WEEK - RTE Radio 1
  • 'Their very name is a guarantor of the finest music’ Top 5 Folk Albums, Nottingham Evening Post;
  • “beautiful” - Aled Jones, BBC Radio 2; “Top Ten Tracks of the Year” - The Crooked Road radio show.
  • 'Weather in the Heart is the most lyrical album of the Celtic world'El Pais, Spain.