Pádraig Rynne: Begin with the End in Mind – Beautiful first solo recording in 17 years

Prolific as he is as a composer, arranger and concertina player, Pádraig Rynne has left 17 years pass since his last solo recording. A born collaborator, he's as much at home in the cosiest corner of a trad session as he is navigating uncharted waters where electronica and trad worlds occasionally converge.

This recording’s title tells a story of a musician with vision and chutzpah by the bucketload, along with wit and appetite. Here the quirks and fancies of his chosen instrument are finely threaded through the original tunes he’s stitched into the beautifully curated sets on this album.

Agile playing

Robust basslines underpin Rynne’s agile playing, and he has mustered the finest Irish and Scottish musicians to reveal their essence, from one of Lad O’Beirne’s reels to the pairing of The Seal Hunter’s fling with his own pair of hop jigs, intriguingly titled The Humours of Pinot and A Winning Season. Rory McCarthy lends judicious tinctures of rhodes and hammond organ while Ewan Vernal’s electric and double bass anchor it all beautifully.

Glorious echoes of Gabriel Yared can be heard in Rynne’s take on Mná na hÉireann: a balm for curious ears everywhere.