The Sweet Track

Three Cane Whale is a multi-instrumental trio, playing acoustic miniatures which draw influence from folk and minimalist music. Alex Vann (mandolin, bowed psaltery, bouzouki, banjo, chimes, citarra, music box) is mandolinist with Spiro (Real World Records). Pete Judge (trumpet, harmonium, dulcitone, lyre, rotary-valve tenor horn, glockenspiel) plays trumpet for Get The Blessing (BBC Jazz Award-winners) and for the duo Eyebrow. Paul Bradley (acoustic guitar, harp, tin whistle) is the man behind legendary Bristol band Organelles, and is currently touring with Scottish Dance Theatre.

Three Cane Whale's eponymous debut album (Idyllic, 2011)was recorded live (by Spiro's Jon Hunt) in an eleven hour shift in an eighteenth-century Bristol church in 2010, and was chosen by Cerys Matthews as one of her Top Five Modern Folk Albums. 

Their second album, Holts And Hovers (Field Notes, 2013), was recorded live (by the English Acoustic Collective's Rob Harbron) in 20 different locations in Dorset, Wales, London, Somerset and Bristol, including churches and chapels, kitchens and hilltops, a greenwood barn and an allotment shed. It was fRoots Editor's Choice Album Of The Year, and chosen by The Observer as one of its "Hidden Gems of 2013". 

'Perfect' (Cerys Matthews, BBC 6Radio)
'The aroma of muddy leaves and old nettles is almost tangible. A delight' (The Observer)
'Ever-inventive' (Fiona Talkington, BBC Radio 3's Late Junction)
'Elegant and atmospheric. An impressively original debut' (Robin Denselow, The Guardian)
'Unutterably lovely ' (Venue)
‘This trio hoe their own row, and do so very successfully, creating singular, contemplative and seductive moods and atmospheres. Wonderful’ (fRoots)
'Bristol's experi-folk trio build works of minimal instrumental beauty to eccentric, uplifting and spellbinding effect' (Time Out)
'A quiet gentle beauty. Mesmerising" (Bristol Evening Post)
'Think of the way light refracts through a raindrop. Intricate, atmospheric and simply beautiful. Four stars" (R2 magazine)
'As full of texture, colour and chaos as a pile of autumn leaves the moment the wind hits. Five stars' (Folk Radio)
'A fantastic record deserving of all kinds of exposure' (The Local)
'An instrumental masterpiece. Spellbinding, inventive and uniquely uplifting' (Rhythm and Booze)
'A pristine purity of vision. Very lovely' (Listomania)
'Minimalism, simplicity and lucidity. Three Cane Whale tick all my boxes for instrumental music' (LiveMusicFM)

