Susan Grace Bates: Skorsa: The Riddle of the Earth | Album Review

Skorsa: The Riddle Of The Earth
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Artist: Susan Grace Bates
Genre: Traditional
Label: Independent Release

The harp has undergone something of a renaissance in recent years, with Moya Brennan, Cormac de Barra, Anne Marie O’Farrell and Catriona McKay poking and prodding at its traditional boundaries with compelling results.

Antrim harper and singer Susan Grace Bates joins the fray with this frequently engaging debut collection.

Her compositional skills and her magpie instinct for gathering tunes from disparate quarters (Sweden, Norway, Estonia and Scotland) coalesce to create an idiosyncratic but impressively coherent soundscape.

Although occasionally meandering, this collection unveils a cool, clean musical sensibility that values space and light over fussy production.

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At First Light’s John McSherry and Dónal O’Connor co-produce.

Siobhán Long

Siobhán Long

Siobhán Long, a contributor to The Irish Times, writes about traditional music and the wider arts