Patrick Wolf

Few English singer-songwriters sound quite like Patrick Wolf, who was born Patrick Denis Apps in South London. Reaching for the ukulele, piano or viola depending on the song, he fuses electronic sampling with classical instruments, and his output stretches from electronic pop to Baroque chamber music. He has been making music since around 2002, and that restless range is what makes his work worth hearing.

His first album, Lycanthropy, came out in the summer of 2003, after Fat Cat Records took notice of his early recordings and supplied him with an Atari computer and a mixing console. Wolf spent a year studying composition at Trinity College of Music while making it, and he took up guest viola work with acts including Arcade Fire and CocoRosie. Wind in the Wires followed in 2005, drawing on his Cornish and Irish roots and earning strong critical praise, with its single Tristan, based on the Cornish legend of Tristram of Lyonesse, still a favourite with fans. The Magic Position, which featured Marianne Faithfull, brought him a degree of commercial success, and he released Lupercalia in 2011. In 2012 he announced Sundark and Riverlight, a double album of acoustic re-recordings marking ten years as a recording artist.