Buille - Buille Beo: A freewheeling celebration of life’s musical possibilities

Buille Beo
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Artist: Buille
Genre: World Music
Label: Crow Valley Music

Buille, the brainchild of Niall Vallely, gives a lie to the false dichotomy around the notion of tradition and innovation.

Over the course of a dozen new pieces (cumulatively amounting to a highly coherent suite), and recorded in Ballyvourney's Ionad Cultúrtha, Buille Beo is a driving, reflective and always freewheeling celebration of life's musical possibilities.

At its heart is the interplay between Vallely’s ever-inquisitive concertina, Kenneth Edge’s soprano saxophone and Caoimhín Vallely’s expansive piano, their parts made whole by Brian Finnegan’s wide-angled percussive force and all grounded by Ed Boyd’s guitar.

It’s a melée more suited to the open road than the fireside. Buille’s division of the set into two (supposed LP) sides concentrates the listener’s eardrums magically.

Siobhán Long

Siobhán Long

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