Our current selection of violins, including our new handmade
instruments, contemporary/20th century and antique violins. 
Our current selection of violas, including our new handmade
instruments, contemporary/20th century and antique violas. 
Our new handmade European cellos. 
We offer high quality ½ and ¾ size violins, cellos and violas
for talented younger players. We can also provide new handmade
violins, violas & cellos for left-handed players.
...
Martin Swan, Musician
"Buying and selling violins has become a big part of my life, but I'm primarily a composer and musician. I've made a number of albums of my own music under the name Mouth Music, I've produced albums for Martyn Bennett, Martin Furey, Nuru Kane and Croatian thrash/indie/folk group Kries. I've written and recorded reams of music for adverts, including the ‘80’s Bond-style Drambuie advert, and TV programmes, most recently the BBC series The Edwardians in Colour. You can find out more about me on Wikipedia.
"My main instrument is the violin. I play with surreal Croatian turbo-folk outfit Zykopops, which Andrew Cronshaw recently reviewed for the magazine fRoots: "What Zykopops do is re-energised versions of popular traditional songs from across the former Yugoslavia, performed with mighty appealing gusto pleasingly unfettered by the restrictions of good musical taste." Check out the fRoots review and also one by Dave Haslam, writing for Rock'n'Reel "one of the most original albums of the year". To download tracks from our first album go to iTunes or cdbaby - which calls it "rakija music for global partygoers". The 'cod-academic-analytic-dialectic' album liner notes are here.
"In a different genre entirely, I am currently working on arrangements of Baroque tunes with Kirsten Bennett - there are rehearsal recordings on my YouTube channel." Martin Swan
"Martin Swan plays a lot of music. Very impressive." his wife
YouTube clips
Martin Swan
Violins YouTube channel
Zykopops' YouTube
channel
Martin
playing with the Lidija Dokuzovic Trio
The Stobo
Village Band playing at Ethnoambient
Martin playing
with Kries in London
Kries at the
2008 Ethnoambient festival in Croatia
Performing with
Andor Vegh and friends in the Sculpture Museum of the Croatian
Academy of Science and Arts
The
London Whirl-y-Gig Club playlist - featuring Mouth Music
Fireworks to
Mouth Music's 'Move On'
Animation to
Mouth Music's 'Seinn O!'
Albums
Most of these albums are available though iTunes and Amazon. There are also Mouth Music band pages on iTunes and Amazon.
Zykopops: Z Kao Zajkopops (Z is for Zykopops)
(2011)
"Pleasingly unfettered by the restrictions of good musical
taste" fRoots
Kries: Kocijani
(2008) Kopito Records
This is great. Martin produced it, and played a bit too.
Nuru Kane: Sigil
(2006) World Music Network
Produced by Martin Swan.
Mouth Music: The Order of Things
(2005) Skitteesh
A forgotten gem.
Martin Furey: Howl
(2003) Skitteesh
Produced by Martin Swan.
Mouth Music: The Scrape
(2003) Skitteesh
A bit embarrassing. Please don't buy this one.
Mouth Music: Seafaring Man
(2001) Meta 4/Nettwerk
Raise a glass and then turn out the lights ...
Martyn Bennett: Bothy Culture
(1998) Rykodisk
Remixed/produced by Martin Swan.
Ambisonic: Ecohero
(1997) Nation Records
All known copies were burnt/destroyed/lost in an epic
record-company war.
Ambisonic: Angel/Weatherman EP
(1995)
Trip-hop dirges to play at friend’s funeral.
Mouth Music: Shorelife
(1995) Triple Earth
Strictly for beachcombers.
Mouth Music: Move On
(1994)
An ‘EP’ – remember them?
Mouth Music: Mo-Di
(1993) Triple Earth/Rykodisc
Weird and wonderful.
Mouth Music: Blue Door Green Sea EP
(1992)
Short. Moody.
Mouth Music: Mouth Music
(1990) Triple Earth/Rykodisc
The one that started it all. A classic.
Everything you need to know about our new handmade
instruments: what our design specifications are, why we got
involved in making new violins, and why we chose the Amati,
Bergonzi and Guarneri forms.
It's
a commonly received wisdom that you have to go to a violin
store to find the right violin, but we already have over 500
happy customers who would beg to differ.
Tone
evaluations of violins by named makers, along with auction
estimates and sale prices.
Summary of Martin's extensive work as a composer, producer,
recording artist and violinist, with links to albums he has
released or produced, and to some recent YouTube performances.
What's
new on the website. Thoughts on choosing and playing an
instrument. Links to forums and online information.
Terms & conditions, return policy, postage costs, how we
package and insure our instruments.
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Please
contact us with any queries, large or small – we try to
respond to all enquiries within 24 hours.
