Luke Daniels

Art of Trio Wren Records ****

Here's a surprisingly engaging boundary-breaker for the new year. English accordionist Luke Daniels marries pinprick precision with a taste for exploration in this spacious collection.

With his background of collaboration with classical musicians, Daniels is clearly at home stretching and bending what some consider to be the immutable laws of the tradition, to startling effect. Art Of Triosees sparks fly between Daniels and fiddler Theresa Kavanagh and guitarist Mike Galvin, whose occasionally jazz-inflected and often languid accompaniment reveals much more of the musician than anything he's done with the recalibrated De Danann. Daniels navigates a colourful route through a set list that ambles from Donegal to Clare by way of Nova Scotia and Quebec, bar one dud note struck by an indulgent reading of Raglan Road. A welcome hairpin bend of a collection. www.wren.ie