1. UK instrumental musical group2. Canadian Christian singer3. Japanese folk/psychedelic/rock band——————————————————1. An instrumental musical group who first came together through Bristolʼs (UK) folk sessions scene in 1993, first under the name of The Famous Five and shortly after as Spiro.

Spiro are…Jon Hunt (guitar)Jane Harbour (violin) studied classical violin in Japan under the legendary Shinichi Suzuki and grew up “listening to a lot of vaguely modern classical stuff like Bartok and Stravinsky and Britten so Iʼve got a lot of time for dissonance and strange harmonies and counter rhythms”.

Sheʼs also a sucker for dance music, “repetitive tunes that are really free and ecstatic”. Jason Sparkes (accordion) began his own classical training during his pre-school years before taking up folk at the start of his teens, inspired by his morris-dancing father.

Alex Vann (mandolin) was the drummer in a punk band before taking up the electric guitar and then graduating to his weapon of choice – the mandolin. Jon Hunt has also done his time in punk bands, someone who took an unusual route from pop to folk to punk to post-punk/new wave but emerged with “this preserved love and fascination for traditional English music”Their first album was 'Lost in Fishponds' (1994) under the name The Famous Five; their first album under the name Spiro, 'Pole Star' (1997), saw a development of their interest in fusing minimalist classical influences with the traditional music of the North of England.

In 2009 they signed to Real World Records, since when they have released two albums, 'Lightbox' (2009) and 'Kaleidophonica' (2012).—————————————————–2. Canadian Christian singer Aaron Spiro has released albums 'Elephant Song' (2009) and 'Love' (2011) under the name Spiro.

—————————————————–3. Japanese folk/psychedelic/rock band The Apples changed its name to SPIRO in 2003 and released the album 'om.' in 2004.