Ellis Island Sound are an instrumental band from London, England, consisting of multi-instrumentalists Peter Astor (formerly of the Loft, the Weather Prophets) and David Sheppard (of State River Widening).
[2] The Good Seed features twenty rustic-yet-sophisticated new recordings concocted from acoustic instruments that range from parlour guitars and ukuleles to pump harmoniums, dulcimers, goat skin drums and washboards.
On completing the record, Astor and Sheppard expanded the band into a 12-piece 'The Ellis Island Sound Orchestra' for their 2007 tour of UK festivals.
Apart from some low-key appearances on beneath-the-radar compilations, EIS fell largely silent while Astor and Sheppard attended to their other projects.
A new album, Regions, which fuses Krauftrock, African highlife and dub techniques and featured vocals from Radiohead associate John Matthias, was released on 7 April 2014.