Celtica Pipes Rock - Steamphonia (2016)

In 2016, the 7th year of touring all over Europe and North America, from Florida to Alaska, after shows and video shootings in New York City and Hawaii, after 3 albums and over 1,3 million views on YouTube (counting the official videos only), it seemed to be time for a change.

Steamphonia, the fourth album, takes the listener across time to the Victorian age. A magic moment when aristocratic elegance meets daring visionary passion, the steam engine promises to become the modern gate to Utopia, and here, as a scientist, you are also adventurer and romanticist. Celtica transforms this fantastic epoch into music distilled from Gothic, Steampunk, and Metal styles to break all the traditional limits of the Great Highland Bagpipe, and creates a totally new musical context for this majestic instrument.

The symphonic, powerful rock-sound is the main difference to the previous albums. Also it features exclusively original compositions. The guitars are tuned down, there are a lot of double bass-drum parts, and even a 30 piece classical choir widens the sound extremely. Gajus Stappen, producer and composer of most of the tunes, explains the band's motivation: “In some way the sound of the Great Highland Bagpipe reminds me of an Aria by an opera singer or a powerful church organ. I always wanted to emphasize this dramatic aspect with a symphonic arrangement. Our performance at Wacken Open Air (the world's biggest Metal festival) has encouraged us to go in this direction“. Having Aya Georgieva, a classically trained violin player, join the band a year ago as a regular member was the first step.