First recorded at the age of seven, sean nos singer Iarla O Lionaird's musical imagination was seeded by a family of singers, as well as Peadar O Riada in the famous choir his father Sean O Riada founded in the West Cork Gaeltacht of Cuil Aodha. As an adult and urbanite, O Lionaird fought an unfashionable and little understood musical corner; but his career is now lifting off on Peter Gabriel's Real World label, in the techno-ambient outfit Afro Celt Sound System, and now with his first solo album, Seacht gCoisceim na Trocaire (Seven Steps to Mercy).