Clare bassist and flautist Neil Ó Loclainn, founder of the genre-busting Ensemble Ériu, is part of a new generation of Irish musicians who are tracing new paths between traditional music and contemporary improvisation.
Roscanna, the first release from his new chamber trio with clarinettist Matthew Berrill and fiddler Aoife Ní Bhriain, is an expedition into uncharted territory: three young musicians – rooted in the Irish tradition but with open minds and generous frames of reference that embrace everything from south Indian classical to minimalism to downtown jazz – finding their way over new terrain.
This is not, nor does it seek to be, the last word on some jazz-meets-trad fusion; rather, it’s a long-awaited, ear-craningly beautiful missive from the new post-genre frontier.
