Louis De Poar and Ronan Browne

Agus Rud Eile De/And Another Thing , Cló Iar Chonnachta ****

Agus Rud Eile De/And Another Thing, Cló Iar Chonnachta ****

Descartes, Isaac Newton, Galileo and Stephen Hawking lurk in the lush undergrowth of this intriguing collaboration. Anchored by the sensual Irish language poetry of Louis de Paor, piper Ronan Browne doesn’t so much paint an aural landscape as stitch it seamlessly around every syllable, swaddling de Paor’s richly spoken words in a tapestry laden with leftfield sound samples and quotidian reminders of life’s ordinary magic. The sheer cinematic scope of Browne’s music is revelatory, sundered from any cosy notions of traditional music convention. Armenian duduk, keyboards and the spine-tingling vocals of Zahrah and Naisrín Elsafty dig deeper still beneath the skin of de Paor’s compelling poetry. A revelatory collaboration that glistens in the heat forged by its own spirit of adventure. cic.ie

Download tracks: Rothar Mór An tSaoil

Siobhán Long

Siobhán Long

Siobhán Long, a contributor to The Irish Times, writes about traditional music and the wider arts