Valtos

Two natives of Skye, Martyn MacDonald and Daniel Docherty, make up Valtos, and they first won listeners by remixing well-known artists. Their music blends house beats with trad melodies, a pairing they call electro-trad, and it draws on the natural beauty of their home and the Gaelic language. Their name comes from a village near Staffin, and the sound owes a clear debt to Martyn Bennett and the Peatbog Faeries.

Their debut single, a remix of "Marx Terrace" by Peatbog Faeries, arrived in January 2022, followed by "Home" with vocals from Eilidh Cormack and Lana Pheutan of Sian. Their self-titled debut album, released on Bandcamp, passed 100,000 streams in its first few weeks, and in December 2022 it earned them the Up and Coming Artist of the Year award at the Scots Trad Music Awards. The following years brought a sold-out Celtic Connections show in January 2023 and a run of singles with collaborators, including "Liberate" with Project Smok and "A' Chuthag", featuring Julie Fowlis, in 2024.