Rant

Rant emerged in the early 2010s as a Scottish chamber folk supergroup that unites four of the country's leading fiddle players. Drawing on avant-garde currents, the ensemble refreshes traditional folk textures and delivers some of the most distinctive sounds in the field.

The quartet was assembled by Shetland natives Jenna Reid and her sister Bethany together with Highlanders Lauren MacColl and Anna Massie. Each musician already enjoyed an individual profile, and the four had previously encountered one another on the folk circuit. Their self-titled debut arrived in 2013, fusing the Norse-inflected Shetland lineage with Gaelic material and introducing measured doses of avant-garde and chamber-music color. The recording met with immediate success and widespread praise, securing a Herald Angel award at that year's Edinburgh Festival.

In 2014 the group appeared as guests on Julie Fowlis's album Gach Sgeul, renewing a connection formed when Jenna Reid performed with Fowlis in Dòchas. The same year brought a nomination for Best Traditional Song at the BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards. Recognition continued in 2016 with a nod for Folk Band of the Year at the Scots Trad Awards; that year also saw the release of their second album, Reverie, which again featured Fowlis as a guest on one track. Their third album, The Portage, followed in 2019 after a swift four-day session at Glasgow's historic Mackintosh Queen's Cross Church. More experimental than its predecessors yet still readily accessible, the record found MacColl turning to viola on several pieces.