Nightnoise: "The White Horse Sessions"
Windham Hill, 01934 11195 -2 (56 mins)
Dial-a-track code: 1641
This is the eighth album to come out of Nightnoise's long productive relationship with Windham Hill, a specialist label with hi-fi and ambience twin priorities on the recording agenda. The constituent elements of Nightnoise are three Irish musicians: Brian Dunning on silver flute, Triona and Micheal O Domhnaill keyboards guitar and voices, and one Scot, fiddler John Cunningham. Drawing on related traditional music idioms, those of Ireland and Scotland, the band have created an expansive contemporary soundscape, garnering an appreciative following Stateside, some of whom feature on this live album. Largely instrumental, with the exception of two songs and some vocalisations on one track, the album features exceptionally fine playing from, the four musicians, each of whom is an equally accomplished team or solo player. Jig Of Saints by Triona Ni Dhomhnaill is a forceful interrogation of jig rhythms and melodic structure led by piano, with flute and fiddle assisting, while her song Heartwood is tremulous, lullaby like, conventionally assembled and sweetly arranged for piano, flute fiddle and guitar.
Shuan and The Cricket's Wicket by Micheal O Domhnaill display a skilled understanding of air composition and arrangement. Similarly Johnny Cunningham with Murrach Na Gealaich, which builds up from a single expressive fiddle line to a jaunty march led from behind by an advancing line of piano and guitar. A delicate guitar and flute opening, suggestive of flamenco, lets rip into a furiously paced but airy "reading" of Van Morrison's Moondance, before disappearing in a flurry of reverb.
Karan Casey: "Songlines"
Shanachie, CD78007 (44 mins)
Dial-a-track code: 1751
The American label Shanachie locates itself firmly centrefield in Irish traditional music. Karan Casey is a young Waterford born Irish singer based in New York and this is her debut as a solo artist (she's also lead singer with the American band Solas). Her material is chosen from the mainstream of traditional song but also includes one Irish language song, Ar An Sean Nos, and two ascribed political songs, Ewan McColl's Ballad Of Accounting and The World Turned Upside Down by Leon Rosselson. Her sources are impeccable and include Frank Harte, Aine Ui Cheallaigh, McColl, Andy Irvine, Paul Brady and Christy Moore. From Harte she learned the unusual She Is Like The Swallow and renders it sparely with minimal accompaniment, allowing it its due measure of gravitas. An Buachaillin Ban, one of two entirely unaccompanied tracks, sees her clear the hurdles of this taxing genre with ease, as does her masterful version of The Labouring Man's Daughter. The album could have done with more in this mode; some of the songs are marred by fussy, insensitive arrangements. McColl's Ballad Of Accounting, a case in point, takes a crude literalist approach, so that a frantic guitar line and furiously sawing fiddle get in the way of the voice. Martinmas Time, alas, is afflicted by a jerky stop go guitar rhythm weighing the, singing down and blocking the vocal exuberance demanded by the song.
The Irvine/Brady version remains unsurpassed. Happily by contrast, on Jean Ritchie's One I Love her voice is left free by muted chordal progressions on piano and resonant cello and fiddle to explore the modal character of the song.
"The Wheels Of The World Vols 1 & 2 - Early Irish American Music"
Yazoo 7008 & 7009
Vol 1 (72 mins), Vol 2 (71 mins)
Dial a track codes: 1861, 1971
Finally, and remaining in North America, Yazoo, one of Shanachie's house labels, has released a fine two volume anthology celebrating the Irish American contribution to Irish traditional music recording history. This 46 track, two CD set is a mini archive of historic recordings by legendary musicians such as Coleman, Morrison, The Flanagans, Patrick Touhey and less widely known players such as concertina player, William Mullaly from Westmeath, and the Leitrim banjo player, Micheal Gaffney, playing one of the very few solos on, that instrument to be recorded on 78. Scanty liner notes and no individual discographical details bear poor comparison to Harry Bradshaw's meticulous scholarship on the Viva Voce releases involving many of these musicians.
