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After vaulting to fame as a founding member of the beloved indie pop collective
Belle and Sebastian,
Isobel Campbell enjoyed success as a solo artist, recording lush and elegiac chamber pop under her given name, under the moniker
the Gentle Waves, and with longstanding duet partner
Mark Lanegan. Born April 27, 1976 in Glasgow, Scotland,
Campbell studied classical cello as an adolescent. At the age of 19, she met aspiring singer/songwriter
Stuart Murdoch at a New Year's party, and although their romance proved brief, she nevertheless agreed to participate in a planned recording session sponsored by Stow College's Music Business Administration curriculum. Dubbed
Belle and Sebastian in honor of a beloved children's book and attendant animated series, the group issued just 1,000 copies of its 1996 debut LP,
Tigermilk. Its shimmering, literate folk-pop immediately earned a worldwide cult following that further expanded with the release of
If You're Feeling Sinister later that same year.
On 1998's
The Boy with the Arab Strap,
Campbell delivered her first lead vocal, "Is It Wicked Not to Care?" With her ethereal voice and striking, Jean Seberg-inspired looks, it was inevitable that she earned a lot of attention from fans and media alike, and in the spring of 1999, she released her first full-length solo project,
the Gentle Waves'
The Green Fields of Foreverland.... A second and final
Gentle Waves release,
Swansong for You, followed a year later, but
Campbell nevertheless remained a full-time member of
Belle and Sebastian through mid-2002, co-writing the Top 20 U.K. hit "Legal Man" before finally exiting just prior to the release of Ghost of Yesterday, a collection of
Billie Holiday covers recorded in collaboration with jazz musician
Bill Wells.
After 2003's
Amorino,
Campbell kept a low profile for several years, finally resurfacing in the spring of 2006 with
Ballad of the Broken Seas, a collection of duets with former
Screaming Trees frontman
Mark Lanegan. The two again collaborated on 2008's
Sunday at Devil Dirt and 2010's
Hawk. After recording her fifth solo album
There Is No Other in 2014,
Campbell was wrapped in label disputes and unable to release the project. After signing to Cooking Vinyl in 2019, she finally resolved the dispute, and the album, her first in over nine years, was released in 2020. ~ Jason Ankeny