At once elegiac and celebratory, this deeply affecting collection is as fitting a valediction as any artist could hope for, just as Leonard Cohen's You Want It Darker is. MacMahon's impact as a musician, a broadcaster and mentor to the generations who follow him is inestimable, as Caoimhín Ó Raghallaigh's immaculate sleeve notes illustrate. Widely admired for his slow airs, and with a cap doffed to O'Carolan, from whose beautiful air he borrows his album title, MacMahon lets himself loose on a baker's dozen of slow airs here. Alas, Port na bPúcaí is not among them, but so many resonate long after the final note has sounded. Just cock an ear to James Connolly and marvel at the clarity, precision and emotional depth that MacMahon mines. An echo of times past and bellwether of what might be to come. raelachrecords.com