The juxtaposition of field recordings with the rarefied setting of the National Concert Hall is a nice play on the preconceptions underpinning this compilation album, produced by Ross Turner, drummer and multi-instrumentalist.
Recording in various nooks and crannies of Earlsfort Terrace, eight pairs of collaborators mine a rich seam that celebrates serendipity, solace and dissonance (both aural and emotional), yielding some fine results. While none of the eight tracks emerged around the fire of a pastoral setting, the sense of organic growth infuses the entire collection.
Brigid Mae Power and Adrian Power’s Halfway to Andalucia is a high lonesome hybrid tale with echoes of By the Time I Get to Phoenix, bolstered by the ambient sounds of a train.
The unquestionably hightlights are Lisa Hannigan’s collaboration with Crash Ensemble, MCMXIV (1914), its bereft opening reminiscent of Gorecki’s Symphony of Sorrowful Songs; and Saileog Ní Cheannabháin and Caoimhín Ó Raghallaigh’s The Campanile – all scratchy Hardanger fiddle underscored by piano lines that are deliciously curious in their explorations. Villagers’ Conor O’Brien and Cian Nugent, and Lisa O’Neill with Colm Mac Iomaire gel too.
A collection that burrows deep beneath the skin and lingers.
