Troy Donockley is Nightwish's multi-instrumentalist and the person responsible for the folk dimension the band absorbed into its symphonic arrangement. Born in England in 1964, he is the first non-Finnish member in the group's history. His main instrument is the uilleann pipes, the Irish bellows-blown bagpipe — an instrument notoriously difficult to play and virtually non-existent in metal before him. He also plays whistles, bouzouki and guitars, and sings, and that variety is the reason for his presence: where the orchestra supplies scale and the choir supplies mass, the folk instruments supply something neither gives — a melodic colour of popular origin, tied to the traditional music of the British Isles. He began as a guest on Dark Passion Play (2007), took part in Imaginaerum (2011) and became an official member in 2013. Since then the folk element has ceased to be occasional ornament and become part of the structure of the compositions, audible on Endless Forms Most Beautiful (2015) and Human. :II: Nature. (2020), the record on which the band devoted a whole album to instrumental and ambient music.
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