Pictish Trail

Parts trippy folk-rock, quirky electronics, and woozy psychedelic pop, the shape-shifting lo-fi of Pictish Trail is the creation of Lost Map Records label runner Johnny Lynch. The project's first proper album, Secret Soundz, Vol. 1, arrived in 2008. Later records like 2020's spacy Thumb World and 2022's fuzzier Island Family continued to offer whimsical palettes and varied stylistic influences.

A resident of the Isle of Eigg, University of St. Andrews graduate Johnny Lynch named his solo project after a historic trail linking Inverness and Golspie, Scotland. Adopting the moniker in 2002, he released his first music as the Pictish Trail a year later on Fence Records. Along with Kenny Anderson (aka King Creosote), who founded the label in 1997, Lynch was involved in running Fence Records from 2003 until 2013. During that time period, some of its signees included Rozi Plain, François and the Atlas Mountains, and Seamus Fogarty.