Pictish Trail

Throughout his career Pictish Trail has resolutely furrowed his own path, steadily creating a unique catalogue of recordings & performances, while eschewing the blueprint of the predictable singer-songwriter in favour of something untidily intriguing. 

Island Family is the fifth album from Isle-of-Eigg dwelling electro-acoustic psych-pop artist Johnny Lynch aka Pictish Trail. A strange, unpredictable, sardonic and yet deeply personal record inspired by all from Fever Ray to The Flaming Lips, Liars, Mercury Rev and Beck, Island Family is Pictish Trail’s contrarian view of arcadia; a search for the euphoric in the bucolic.

Secret Soundz Vol.1 & 2, his critically acclaimed first pair of albums, were gloriously eclectic slices of lo-fi folk-pop later revived as a deluxe double-vinyl by Moshi Moshi. Future Echoes, was released to further acclaim in 2016, winning the public vote for Scottish Album of the Year (SAY Award) in 2017, and reissued as a deluxe edition on Record Store Day in 2018 by London-based taste-makers, Fire Records. In 2020 Johnny released his 4th LP, Thumb World, a voyage to the outer rings of Pictish Trail’s mind at its darkest, funniest & most inventive – described by Clash as “his most dazzling, most exceptional yet”.

Over summer and autumn 2024, Pictish Trail will be performing a select series of stripped-back shows, playing songs from across his 5 album back-catalogue on acoustic guitar and sampler, accompanied by Semay Wu on cello, Gillian Fleetwood on harp, and Susan Bear on keys and bass guitar. 

When not putting out his own music as Pictish Trail, Johnny Lynch is a fulcrum of the British independent music community. Through his label Lost Map, he champions a diverse and idiosyncratic array of extraordinary talent, helping to elevate the likes of Rozi Plain, Alabaster dePlume, Bas Jan, Callum Easter and Free Love.

Have a listen…