Recordings Featuring The Hurdy Gurdy

The following recordings use the hurdy gurdy.

• There are a large number of field recordings available, both commercially and in archives, of traditional musicians from France, Spain, Hungary, etc., playing hurdy-gurdies. Examples include the 10-CD box set "Une Anthologie des Musiques Traditionnelles" (2010) which has several tracks of performances on the hurdy-gurdy by traditional players, and the Spanish musician Faustino Santalices' "Gravacions Historicas de Zanfona, 1927-1949".)
• The instrument is used in the introduction of the song, "East Harlem" by American alternative band, Beirut, on their 2011 album, The Rip Tide.
• The album In Elven Lands by The Fellowship features a hurdy gurdy played by Ethan James.
• The group Blowzabella feature hurdy-gurdies together with bagpipes and an array of acoustic instruments "to produce an inimitable, driving drone-based sound influenced by British and European traditional dance music."
• Patrick Bouffard is a master player and composer in the Bourbonnais and Auvergne traditions, and has recorded several albums with Trio Patrick Bouffard, Les Vielleux du Bourbonnais, La Chavannée de Montbel and other groups.
• Gilles Chabenat is a composer and master player of traditional and experimental electronic hurdy-gurdy styles.
• Jean-François Dutertre's CD "Chansons de Normandie" (2002) features the hurdy gurdy.
• Régine Chassagne, a prominent member of Canadian indie rock band Arcade Fire uses a hurdy-gurdy on their 2007 album Neon Bible. Notable tracks featuring the use of a hurdy gurdy are "Black Mirror" and "Keep the Car Running".
• The New York ensemble Unto Ashes use hurdy gurdy in their funerary song Exeunt Omnia which also features dulcimer and percussion. In Tous Esforcier the hurdy gurdy is used as a drone, accompanied by voice, French horn, and percussion.
• Many traditional music groups in France feature a hurdy-gurdy or multiple hurdy-gurdies, including La Chavannée, Dédale, Trio Patrick Bouffard, Tapage and La Machine.
• There is a hurdy gurdy on the Metallica album ReLoad, played by David Miles on the 11th track, "Low Man's Lyric."
• The Rose Ensemble, an early music group based in Minnesota, frequently uses the hurdy gurdy in performances and recordings.
• There is hurdy gurdy and border pipes on the Earthly Delights album Pleasures for Four Seasons and Favourites for Four Settings, played by John Garden and located at Earthly Delights. Each tune is also supplied with sheet music for musicians to use.
• Hurdy gurdies are used in many of the recordings by the Swedish groups Garmarna and Hedningarna.
• In 1999, Stefan Brisland-Ferner of Garmarna and Hållbus Totte Mattson of Hedningarna began collaborating on a musical project that would involve a novel use of hurdy gurdies, which would expand on the idea that the hurdy gurdy was the medieval equivalent of a synthesizer. In 2005, they released their first album under the name "Hurdy-Gurdy", titled "Prototyp". The album consists of twelve traditional and original songs, played entirely on two Swedish hurdy gurdies by Brisland-Ferner and Mattson. Specialized recording and computer editing techniques were used to produce a number of unique musical effects.
• The Australian world/fusion group Umanee features hurdy gurdy in many of their songs.
• Nigel Eaton plays hurdy gurdy on No Quarter: Jimmy Page and Robert Plant Unledded, the 1994 album of Jimmy Page and Robert Plant's 1990s band Page and Plant, most notably on their new version of "Nobody's Fault but Mine, however the most famous use of the hurdy gurdy would be the intro of Led Zeppelin's song "In the light" from the 1975 album "Physical Graffiti]".
• The German folk-rock band Schandmaul uses a hurdy gurdy.
• The German folk-rock metal band In Extremo sometimes uses a hurdy gurdy in their songs.
• The avant-garde band Zaar has a hurdy gurdy player.
• The Irish musician Andy Irvine plays the hurdy gurdy on several tracks, most prominently on the tune "Planxty Irvine".
• The multi-instrumentalist Brendan Perry is also a hurdy gurdy virtuoso and used one in the live performance of "saltarello" in the 2005 tour of his former band Dead Can Dance.
• Led Zeppelin guitarist Jimmy Page can be seen playing a hurdy gurdy in the Zeppelin movie The Song Remains the Same, sitting in front of his 18th century manor at Plumpton, Sussex. The tune played is called "Autumn Lake." Page and Plant are also seen using a hurdy gurdy in a 1994 recording of "Gallows Pole".
• The indie rock band The Decemberists employ a hurdy gurdy in many of their songs including Sons and Daughters on their fourth album, The Crane Wife.
• The line-up of the popular Asturian folk band La Bandina includes the hurdy gurdy player Merce Santos.
• Brendan O'Brien plays the hurdy gurdy on the track "Into The Fire" from the Bruce Springsteen album The Rising. O'Brien also produced the album.
• The folk metal band Eluveitie uses the hurdy gurdy in many of their songs, played by Anna Murphy.
• Sting played a hurdy gurdy accompanying Alison Krauss in the song "You Will Be My Ain True Love" from the Cold Mountain soundtrack.
• David Eugene Edwards of the band 16 Horsepower plays the Hurdy gurdy (among other instruments).
• Loreena McKennitt has several albums featuring a hurdy gurdy played by Nigel Eaton and Ben Grossman. A hurdy gurdy is prominently featured (and shown in close-up) in several songs on the concert video/album Nights from the Alhambra.
• The pagan folk band Omnia has hurdy gurdy on many tracks on their album Pagan Folk (2006), played by Jennifer Van der Harten-Evans.
• The pagan folk band Faun uses hurdy gurdy on their albums.
• Jim O'Rourke's one track album Happy Days features the hurdy gurdy.
• Natasa Mirkovic and Matthias Loibner have recorded "Der Leiermann" with a hurdy-gurdy. This Schubert song from Winterreise is about a hurdy-gurdy player.
• The 2003 movie Monster has music by BT that includes a hurdy gurdy, played by Ben Grossman. It is available on CD "Music From & Inspired By the Film Monster" released by Digital Sound in 2004.
• The psychedelic stoner rock band Obiat uses a hurdy gurdy played by Zarand Schuller in some of its live concerts and on its second album "Disturbulence."
• The rock band Lazywall used a hurdy gurdy played by Zarand Schuller as an introduction to their concerts on their tour of France in November 2007
• French improviser Dominique Regef plays hurdy gurdy in the Spectrum String Trio on their 2008 release "Spectrum."
• Hurdy Gurdy is used on two tracks of The Civil War album by experimental electronic music duo Matmos.
• Jem Finer plays a hurdy gurdy on the Pogues' "Misty Morning, Albert Bridge," from their album Peace and Love.
• Ritchie Blackmore sometimes plays a hurdy gurdy with the band Blackmore's Night, as seen on their concert DVD Paris Moon
• In the Melbourne based neo-classical/goth project called "The Victim's Ball", Hurdy gurdys are widely featured in various tracks.
• The Broadside Band, a traditional English folk band, features a hurdy gurdy on many of their songs.
• The movie The Polar Express has a hobo on top of the train playing a Hurdy Gurdy
• Keiji Haino has recorded an album that uses the hurdy gurdy, "The 21st Century Hard-y Guide-y Man".
• In the 1937 movie "Captains Courageous", Spencer Tracy is seen playing a hurdy gurdy.
• The hurdy gurdy is played by Tony Berg on the track "Hang On", from Weezer's 2010 album, Hurley.
• The album "The Raven" by Lou Reed features a hurdy gurdy played by Frank Wulff on two songs: "Overture" and "The Fall Of The House Of Usher".