Freda Leask is a singer song-writer from the musical Shetland Islands. Her work varies from folk songs inspired by the Shetland environment, history and dialect to compositions with a more rootsy americana style. Known for her work with Shetland’s influential harmony group ‘Shoormal,’ in the 90s/00s, Freda now  performs as a solo artist and with various line-ups. A keen collaborator, with a love of harmony, drawing influence from authentic country, folk music and gospel.

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Freda's recent original material, produced by multi-award winning Scottish artist Kris Drever (Lau) and the hugely talented, Shetland- based, Tim Matthew can be found on Bandcamp and all the usual music platforms.  All tracks have accompanying music videos on YouTube

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WILDBIRD, is the most recent, with the official video filmed by Emmy nominated Swiss film maker, Nick Brandestini.

ANOTHER COAT OF BLACK,  the third popular release , is a co-write with another Shetlander, Gina Paola Ritch. 

GHOST NOTES: second in the series was released in the spring of 2022 took to the stage at The Royal Concert Hall in Glasgow as part of the Celtic Connections 2022 programme, featuring a stunning line-up of some of Scotland’s best known folk musicians, as well as Kris Drever and Freda Leask themselves. 

A fitting song for the centre-piece concert: ‘Shetland 550: Norn Voices,’ as the lyrics are loosely inspired by nordic skies and  ‘the Northern Lights’  or ‘Aurora Borealis’. 

The accompanying ‘GHOST NOTES’  YouTube video, shows spectacular footage of this phenomenon, all filmed in the hills around Freda’s island home.

 

The initial single 'MAGDALENE,’ received airplay across Scotland, Canada, America and further afield and is also available in all these places