One of the most unusual collaborations of the past decade, The Imagined Village made a significant impression with their critically acclaimed and commercially successful début album. They toured extensively, appeared on TV's Later…With Jools show and won out at the BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards. If the band had initially developed as a loose collective of singers and musicians, they have subsequently consolidated into a working, growing, organic aggregation. This stability in personnel is shiningly reflected in the brand new, follow-up album, which is also their first on the new record label ECC. Titled “Empire and Love”, it is released on 11 January 2010, a few days prior to a major UK tour that will include prestigious gigs at Scotland’s Celtic Connections Festival and London’s Queen Elizabeth Hall.