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Since time immemorial, the Highlands and Islands have been a hugely fertile and influential cultural wellspring, one which continues immeasurably to enrich today’s international folk scene. This opulent past and present musical panoply is vibrantly embodied by the singers and instrumentalists gathered here, who’ll be performing both in their own line-ups and in specially-created collaborative combinations.

No such super-session would nowadays be complete without the mighty Blazin’ Fiddles, whose innovative contemporary arrangements showcase regional traditions from Lochaber to Shetland – with the latter now represented by new member Jenna Reid. Also featured is another of Highland music’s biggest current stars, the exquisite Gaelic singer Julie Fowlis, with her formidable Scottish/Irish band.

Fans of Gaelic song, indeed, are in for an extra-special treat, from a multi-generational array of outstanding exponents. The others include Barra-born pioneer Catherine-Ann MacPhee, whose early recordings blazed the trail for the tradition’s ongoing revival since the 1990s, and renowned Lewis native Margaret Stewart, Gaelic Singer of the Year at the 2008 Scots Trad Music Awards. Then there’s the sublime voice of South Uist’s Kathleen MacInnes, who won the same title two years earlier, and Darren MacLean from Skye, a Mòd Gold Medallist and three-time finalist in the Radio Scotland Young Traditional Musician of the Year contest.

And there’s yet more Gaelic song, together with blissfully tight, fiery instrumentals, from Dàimh, whose lead singer Calum Alex MacMillan is another of Lewis’s finest, while the rest of their line-up – from as far afield as Canada and the US – reflects the Highlands’ wider diaspora. Last but certainly not least (and barring of course extra guests who may drop by on the night – it being a session, after all), the great Scottish fiddler Alasdair Fraser and US cello phenomenon Natalie Haas square up for more of their endlessly inventive musical sparring.

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