Editing Afro Celt Sound System (section)

==Career==
Jamming in the studios at Real World, musician Peter Gabriel's recording facilities in [[Wiltshire, England]], the group of musicians recorded the basis of their first album in one week. This album, ''[[Volume 1: Sound Magic]]'', was released by Real World Records in 1996, and marked the debut of the Afro Celt Sound System.<ref name="LarkinDM">{{cite book|title=[[Encyclopedia of Popular Music|The Virgin Encyclopedia of Dance Music]]|editor=Colin Larkin|editor-link=Colin Larkin (writer)|publisher=[[Virgin Books]]|date=1998|edition=First|isbn=0-7535-0252-6|page=9}}</ref>

"Prior to that first album being made, none of us knew if it would work," musician James McNally told Larry Katz of the Boston Herald. "We were strangers who didn't even speak the same language. But we were bowled over by this communication that took place beyond language."{{full citation needed|date=November 2012}} McNally, who grew up second-generation Irish in London, played whistles, keyboards, piano, [[bodhran]], and bamboo flute.

''Sound Magic'' has now sold over 300,000 copies. The band performed at festivals, raves, and dance clubs and regularly included two African musicians, Moussa Sissokho on talking drum and djembe and [[N'Faly Kouyate]] on vocals, [[Kora (instrument)|kora]] and [[balafon]].

Just as the second album was getting off the ground, one of the group's core musicians, 27-year-old [[keyboardist]] Jo Bruce, (son of [[Cream (band)|Cream]] bass player [[Jack Bruce]]), died suddenly of an [[asthma]] attack.<ref name="LarkinDM"/> The band was devastated, and the album was put on hold. [[Sinéad O'Connor]] then collaborated with the band and helped them cope with their loss. "[O'Connor] blew into the studio on a windy November night and blew away again leaving us something incredibly emotional and powerful," McNally told Katz. "We had this track we didn't know what to do with. Sinéad scribbled a few lyrics and bang! She left us completely choked up."{{full citation needed|date=November 2012}} The band used the name of O'Connor's song, "Release", for the title of their album. ''[[Volume 2: Release]]'' was released in 1999, and by the spring of 2000 it had sold more than half a million copies worldwide. ''Release'' is also used as one of the GCSE music set works in the UK that students are required to study for their exam.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Release – Afro Celt Sound System: Release – Edexcel – GCSE Music Revision – Edexcel|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/guides/zvw8jty/revision/1|access-date=2020-09-28|publisher=BBC Bitesize|language=en-GB}}</ref>

In 2000, the group was nominated for a Grammy Award in the Best World Music category. The band, composed at the time of eight members from six countries (the UK, [[Senegal]], Guinea, Ireland, France and [[Kenya]]), took pride in its ability to bring people together through music. "We can communicate anywhere at any corner of the planet and feel that we're at home," McNally told Patrick MacDonald of ''[[The Seattle Times]]''. "We're breaking down categories of world music and rock music and black music. We leave a door open to communicate with each other's traditions. And it's changed our lives".{{full citation needed|date=November 2012}}

In 2001, the group released ''[[Volume 3: Further in Time]]'', which climbed to number one on ''[[Billboard (magazine)|Billboard]]''{{'}}s Top World Music Albums chart. Featuring guest spots by Peter Gabriel and [[Robert Plant]], the album also incorporated a heightened African sound. "On the first two records, the pendulum swung more toward the Celtic, London club side of the equation," Emmerson told ''The Irish Times''{{'}} Carroll. "For this one, we wanted to have more African vocals and input than we'd done before."<ref name="Jim Carroll"/> Again the Afro Celt Sound System met with success. Chuck Taylor of ''Billboard'' praised the album as "a cultural phenomenon that bursts past the traditional boundaries of contemporary music."{{full citation needed|date=November 2012}} The single "[[When You're Falling]]", with vocals by Gabriel, became a radio hit in the United States.

In 2003, for the ''[[Seed (Afro Celt Sound System album)|Seed]]'' album, they changed their name to Afrocelts. They reverted to the longer band name for their subsequent albums, ''[[Pod (Afro Celt Sound System album)|Pod]]'', a compilation of new mixes of songs from the first four albums, ''Volume 5: Anatomic'' (their fifth studio album), and ''Capture (1995–2010)''.

They played a number of shows to promote ''Volume 5: Anatomic'' in 2006 and summer 2007, ending with a gig in Korea,<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.afrocelts.org/wst_page9.html |title=Afro Celt Sound System Fan Website – ACSS News |publisher=Afrocelts.org |access-date=2014-07-15 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100620120502/http://www.afrocelts.org/wst_page9.html |archive-date=20 June 2010 |url-status=dead }}</ref> before taking an extended break to work on side projects, amongst them ''[[The Imagined Village]]'' featuring Simon Emmerson and Johnny Kalsi. Starting in the summer of 2010, the band performed a series of live shows to promote ''Capture (1995–2010)'', released on 6 September 2010 on Real World Records. Further performances continue to the present day, and a new album-in-progress titled ''Born'' was announced on their website in 2014. Following the split (see below), Emmerson's version of the band released the album The Source in 2016.