Fiddler Louise Bichan Releases Her Second Solo Recording, Almost a Decade in the Making

This story was written by Megan Westberg for the May-June 2024 issue of Strings magazine and is read by the author.It will have started before you notice it’s happening. You’ll hit play on fiddler Louise Bichan’s title track to her recent release, The Lost Summer (Adhyâropa Records), and you’ll suddenly realize you’re moving. In fact, you’ve been moving since Conor Hearn’s guitar and Bichan’s fiddle first lured you into the tune. The music seems a study in delight. A sparkling, clear-eyed energy sweeps through it nimbly with moments of coy rhythmic playfulness. What fun, you think.So you might be surprised to discover this tune was written in 2020 (ah, that lost summer) and inspired by Bichan’s distress at being unable to return home to Orkney—a group of islands off the northeast tip of Scotland—where she grew up.Support the show