I posted my notes in the first post but for the purpose of discussion I'm replicating it here.
So for this month I decided to switch out communities focus to Irish music, a theme that will be continued in the further listening picks that I announce in a little while. For a small island we have a proud artistic tradition that deserves to be cherished and celebrated, I wanted to share a little bit of that with you all.
Once this decision had been made the band to pick was glaringly obvious. For me The Gloaming are quite simply in a class of their own, streets above their nearest competitors here. Formed in 2011, initially to perform as a live act, they released their eponymous debut album in 2013 with their follow ups "2" and "3" dropping in 2016 and 2019 respectively. They have also released the exceptional live album "Live at the NCH" in 2018.
The Gloaming are comprised of Iarla Ó Lionáird on vocals, Dennis Cahil on guitar, Martin Hayes on fiddle, Caoimhín Ó Raghallaigh on the Hardanger D'Amore fiddle and with Thomas Bartlett (Doveman) as the producer and pianist. With Ó Lionáird's beautiful and plaintive vocals, sung in the traditional sean nos style, Cahill's percussive guitar, Hayes' beatiful fiddle playing which intertwines throughout with Ó Raghallaigh's Hardanger fiddle which produces a deeper, almost throaty, and resonant sound. The cherry on the icing on the cake is the beautiful, minimalist piano playing of Bartlett which, while at times is barely present, is always central.
Throughout their albums The Gloaming have created a beautiful triad of albums which increasingly take Irish traditional music into new and exciting places that it has never before ventured. By letting the often dense melodic strands of this music breath that have evolved this music into a new and exciting form of modern Irish classicism that can confidently stand alongside the very best of the modern European classical minimalist composers.
So why have I chosen 3? I must say it was a very difficult choice between 2 and 3. Both are stunning pieces. The reason is that I think that this album is culmination of the journey they started with their debut album. Through the beautiful half-remembered dream state of "The Lobster", the beautiful "Pink House" and the joyous "Sheehan's Jig" culiminating in the beautiful "Doctor O'Neill". a track that condenses everything they do best into a stunning 10 minute track and the deep and beautifully melancholic meditation on death. the final journey we all must take, in "Amhrán Na nGleann" (which translates in English as The Song Of The Glens).
This music is the past, the present and the future of Irish music. It is quite simply transcendent in every way.
