The story of Áed begins in 2013, when singer Ilenia Ballacchino and fiddler Helen Maier met at an Irish traditional music session in Lucerne, Switzerland.

From that meeting grew a creative partnership rooted in curiosity, independence, and a shared artistic vision. Both had been drawn to folk music since childhood, though from different places and traditions.

Ilenia grew up immersed in Sicilian folk traditions and later studied Celtic Studies in Ireland, where she learned the bodhrán from Robbie Walsh. Helen, influenced by the klezmer music of her father, began playing the fiddle at eight and developed her voice across numerous ensembles.

But Áed did not emerge from preservation — it emerged from transformation. From the beginning, Ilenia and Helen approached folk not as something to reproduce, but as something to question, inhabit, and gradually re-author.

Along the way, they were joined by Jonas Künzli (double bass) and Raoul Morat (guitar), whose musical backgrounds in jazz, gypsy swing and classical music expanded the band’s sonic range. Rather than centering a single tradition, Áed became a space of dialogue — one that resists hierarchy and allows multiple musical identities to coexist and evolve.

Since 2023, the ensemble has been further shaped by Anna Murphy, whose hurdy-gurdy and vocals bring a powerful, textured presence. As a musician and internationally active sound engineer, she embodies a rare combination of artistic and technical authorship — expanding not only the sound of Áed, but also the structures through which that sound is created and produced.

Together, these five musicians create a body of work that moves between rootedness and resistance. Their music draws on Celtic traditions, but refuses to be contained by them. Instead, it opens them — bending form, expanding narrative, and allowing space for new voices, new tensions, and new emotional landscapes.

Áed’s sound is both grounded and disruptive: earthy melodies collide with dark, shimmering textures; driving rhythms dissolve into fragile, suspended moments. Their compositions are shaped by themes of transformation, liminality and inner worlds — but also by the question of who gets to tell these stories, and how.

With their third album Beyond (2025), Áed unfold this depth more fully than ever. The pieces move between archaic force and delicate intimacy — carried by Ilenia’s expressive voice, Helen’s fiddle oscillating between tenderness and intensity, Jonas’ grounding bass, Raoul’s open guitar work, and the atmospheric timbres of Anna’s hurdy-gurdy.

Their previous album Leaf (2023) — recorded by Anna Murphy and featuring guest musicians Cillian King and Ryan Murphy — already pointed toward this expanded sonic identity: a blend of tradition, modernity and cinematic atmosphere. Beyond continues this path — darker, wider, and more self-defined.

Experiencing Áed live means entering a space that opens slowly: a space shaped by presence, listening and connection. An evening of voices, warmth and depth — and a quiet kind of magic that lingers long after the final note.

Áed released their debut album Moved in 2020, followed by Leaf in 2023 and Beyond in 2025.