For someone who says he has been around from the Cretaceous period, Iarla O Lionaird looks remarkably hip. Perhaps he's not talking about himself, but his singing style. As a member of Afro Celt Sound System, O Lionaird is the person responsible for dragging sean nos singing out of the bardic middle ages and into a modern sphere. In a different era, O Lionaird would have been fighting a losing battle, but he's astute enough to surround his delicately improvisational singing with enough sonic ambience to make even the most cynical of critics sit up and take notice. Iarla O Lionaird performs an "intense" multimedia presentation at Galway's Town Hall Theatre tomorrow and Dublin's Vicar Street next Wednesday in support of his new solo album, I Could Read The Sky.
