Effective period / Period of releases: 2007 - 2012

Members: Simon Richmond, Andy Gangadeen, Eliza Carthy, Simon Emmerson, Sheema Mukherjee, Ali Friend, Johnny Kalsi, Martin Carthy, Jackie Oates, Chris Wood (10)

One of the most unusual collaborations of the past decade, The Imagined Village made a significant impression with their critically acclaimed and commercially successful début album. They toured extensively, appeared on TV's Later…With Jools show and won out at the BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards. If the band had initially developed as a loose collective of singers and musicians, they have subsequently consolidated into a working, growing, organic aggregation. This stability in personnel is shiningly reflected in the brand new, follow-up album, which is also their first on the new record label ECC. Titled “Empire and Love”, it is released on 11 January 2010, a few days prior to a major UK tour that will include prestigious gigs at Scotland’s Celtic Connections Festival and London’s Queen Elizabeth Hall.