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. ~ Marcy Donelson