Singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist, Luke Daniels is proud to announce the release of his new album What’s Here, What’s Gone on through Gael Records & Proper Music distribution. In support of its release Luke will embark on a 22-date UK tour starting with English Folk Expo in Bury.
 
Luke is already an acclaimed folk musician and composer whose talents as a singer-songwriter are also becoming widely recognised. Immaculate acoustic guitar playing and insightful, honest lyrics exploring love, life, doubt and faith and the idea that happiness and hope spring from what we have in common, rather than what we can acquire as individuals.
 
Also touring his new commissioned work Songs of the Scottish Enlightenment, featuring songs that combine Gaelic and English with supporting artists on percussion and strings. Exploring the extent to which Scots Gaelic language and societies influenced the flowering of philosophical thinking in the 1700s that earned The Edinburgh epithet ‘Athens of the North’. The songs also examine social alternatives being advocated by modern-day progressives to highlight links between Scottish Enlightenment views, modern Britain and our shared Gaelic past.
 
Over the course of a twenty-year career Daniels has already earned his place on the UK Folk scene as a virtuoso melodeon player with the likes of Riverdance, De Dannan and Ian Anderson, whilst performing with his own band at The London Jazz Festival, The Royal Festival Hall and festivals in the UK and internationally. Luke also worked alongside Howard Shore and The London Philharmonic Orchestra as a soloist on the movie soundtracks for Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit and is currently a regular member of The Cara Dillon Band.

Using source material from Edinburgh’s School of Scottish Studies Luke has created Songs of the Scottish Enlightenment to consider the effect that individualism and consumerism had on our traditional culture and examine the alternatives advocated by modern progressives.
 
Daniels is one of the UK’s most gifted and inventive musicians and having found a new voice as a songwriter is excited to be taking his contemporary acoustic folk in a new direction.