Josie Nugent (fiddle) and Brian Stafford (uilleann pipes) are a Belfast-based fiddle and uilleann pipes duo. Their playing has been described as fresh, electric and sublime. Both are experienced musicians collaborating in many musical genres, ranging from traditional to jazz and even orchestral.

A stand out feature of their superb musicianship is the use of instrumentation to create texture, colour and authenticity. Josie’s languid Clare style on fiddle, octave violin and the evocative Stroh fiddle blends with the sweet mellow tones from Brian’s innovate piping skills on his concert and B♭ pipes.

Their debut album, The Caves of Cong, has been hailed as an intriguing, beguiling and inspirational; an album that opens a door to a world of music waiting to be re-discovered.

The repertoire is fresh and eclectic, the playing is just sublime. This is an album from which listeners, dancers and players can all take inspiration.

An ceol go hálainn ar an CD agus an-éagsúlacht - binn blasta

It's the combination of fiddle and pipes which really makes this such an enjoyable album ... the languid Clare fiddle style blends with quite tight fingering on the chanter, a relatively closed style which is softened by pipes by Derry maker Finbar McLaughlin.

A great joy of the album is the rediscovery of different dance forms ... Stafford and Nugent have blown the dust off the old manuscripts, reviving some seriously impressive tunes in the process.