Maire Breatnach: "Celtic Lovers" STARC, SCD 696 (42 mins)
Dial a track code; 1641
Like Branhom - The Voyage Of Bran, Maire Breatnach's third album takes us on a restorative jaunt through Irish mythology, with its great lovers as its theme. Each partner of the chosen couples is given a piece of music (unlike her previous two albums, no vocal material is included) more or less within the traditional idoms of dance music and song airs. While the music of Celtic Lovers could be easily accessed without any knowledge of Irish myths and sagas, the glosses she provides in the sleeve notes on the stories of the various couples add considerably to the appreciation of the work.
Musically the album is a coherent whole, at the centre of which a formidable musical intelligence is partnered by a player of the highest order of accomplishment, accompanied by a first division squad of musicians. From the opening enchantments of Mannan's polkas, to the blandishments of Grainne's slip jigs, to the tender evocations of lost love on Fand's air, the melodies and rhythms hold the listener spellbound.
Noirin Ni Riain: "Celtic Soul"
Living Music, LMUS 0031 (55 mins)
Dial a track code: 1751
Having spent the last decade exploring more familiar inshore waters, Celtic Soul sees singer Noirin Ni Riain striking out for the open sea with an album recorded in America, and performed with the Paul Winter Consort.
On this album the austere acoustic of Paul Winter's and Russ Landau, and Tom Bates's production, in addition to Paul Winter's arrangements and the Consort's accompaniment, add a distance which makes for a beautifully maintained equilibrium. This is most memorably achieved on tracks like Thugamar Fein An Samhradh Linn, where piano, pipes, percussion and synth weave delicate filigrees around a passionately expressive vocal line, and again on Suantraidie, two lullabies segued and sung against dense but finely detailed harp synth, synth, hand percussion and triangle.
Seamus Egan: "When Juniper Sleeps"
Shanachie, 79097 (58 mins)
Dial-a-track code: 1861
A mixed bag from this accomplished multi instrumentalist, When Juniper Sleeps presents the listener with at least two musical persona. The first is that of the young contemporary traditional musician, flute, whistle pipes and banjo player engaging with the tradition on his own terms. Disappointingly, tracks like The Winding Hills and The Czar Of Munster fail to deliver in the context of reworking tradition, being in the main unfocussed explorations around keys and phrasing. The latter persona, however, is that of a gifted guitar player with an original and fine ear for composition on that instrument. Tunes like The Lark and When Last We Met, polished melodies arranged for stringed instruments with minimal percussion, delight with their suggestion of song airs and their old timey feel. This seems to be the true voice of Seamus Egan.
Folk Music And Dances Of Ireland
Ossian, 055 CD03
Dial-a-track code: 1971
It's good to see this collection being reissued on CD to accompany Breandan Breathnach's seminal work of the same name, first published in 1971 and still going strong as an introductory book on the subject of Irish traditional music. The book is partly out of date in that it no longer wholly describes the contemporary tradition, and the recordings which were made to illustrate the song and tune references in the book include not one woman, surprising even for 1971. Worth buying, though, for John Reilly's singing and Sean Keane's mighty playing.
