Pictish Trail

Parts trippy folk-rock, quirky electronics, and woozy psychedelic pop, the shape-shifting lo-fi of Pictish Trail is the creation of Lost Map Records label runner Johnny Lynch. The project's first proper album, Secret Soundz, Vol. 1, arrived in 2008. Later records like 2020's spacy Thumb World and 2022's fuzzier Island Family continued to offer whimsical palettes and varied stylistic influences.

A resident of the Isle of Eigg, University of St. Andrews graduate Johnny Lynch named his solo project after a historic trail linking Inverness and Golspie, Scotland. Adopting the moniker in 2002, he released his first music as the Pictish Trail a year later on Fence Records. Along with Kenny Anderson (aka King Creosote), who founded the label in 1997, Lynch was involved in running Fence Records from 2003 until 2013. During that time period, some of its signees included Rozi Plain, François and the Atlas Mountains, and Seamus Fogarty.

The Pictish Trail made its official full-length debut with Secret Soundz, Vol. 1 in 2008. The mini-album In Rooms appeared in 2011 before Secret Soundz, Vol. 2 followed in 2013. After parting ways with Anderson and Fence, Lynch established his own Lost Map Records, releasing the collection Secret Soundz, Vols. 1 & 2 in 2013. Moshi Moshi reissued the set the following year. Dropping the lead article, Pictish Trail's third album, Future Echoes, arrived on Lost Map in 2016. An expanded edition of Future Echoes was released by Fire Records for Records Store Day in 2018. Featuring production and mixing Rob Jones and drums by Alex Thomas -- both prior collaborators -- Thumb World followed on Fire Records in 2020. The label issued the Pictish Trail EP Dream World on April Fool's Day of 2021, with fifth full-length Island Family following in March 2022. It was also produced by Jones.