1. The Dark Well
By Enda Scahill & Joel Andersson
This visceral collaboration sees Enda Scahill of We Banjo 3 and the Swedish harmonica player Joel Andersson mine seams so deep that they unearth gems gloriously uncut across genres from Irish traditional to bluegrass and jazz. Andersson’s harmonica reeds sound like the errant and newfound sibling of Cormac Begley’s multitude of concertinas, while Scahill traces glorious arcs with his banjo. Here is where to go to encounter tunes married in titanic struggles. The Port Hole of the Kelp opens as if gasping for breath, then imperceptibly evolves into a knee-slapping, raggedy rawney take on the session standard Miss McLeod’s.
2. Seo Muid
Maighread and Tríona Ní Dhomhnaill
This was a delicious surprise of 2025. The sisters open a brand new chapter in their singing lives together with this remarkable collection. Maighread’s vocals are as crystalline as ever but also imbued with the life she has lived over the five decades since their debut, with Skara Brae. Tríona’s reflective contributions on piano, harmonium and whistles, as well, of course, with her distinctive vocals, guide the siblings to extraordinary depths of expression. Among the standouts: the Breton song Kouskit and Cumha an Fhile. Ever curious, ever exploring.
3. Old Segotia
By Caoimhín Ó Raghallaigh and Seán MacErlaine
As the title suggests, these are two old friends, both members of This Is How We Fly, seeking out communion with more friends, old and yet to be forged. MacErlaine is a multi-instrumentalist bringing clarinet and its single-reed ancestor the chalumeau, with an assortment of flutes, to joust playfully with Ó Raghallaigh’s Hardanger fiddle, flutes and eerie live electronics. This is music to get lost in, its flighty, weightless musings draw the listener in, inviting return visits where Seán Ronayne’s birdsong can be found luring the music ever skywards. A delicate beauty has been born.
4. Into the Loam
By Cormac Begley and Liam O’Connor
Cormac Begley’s multiple concertinas have transformed how we see this diminutive instrument. Here it looms large in a collection of tunes shared with the fiddle player Liam O’Connor. A doffing of the cap to those who came before, from Tommie Potts to Elizabeth Crotty and others, Into the Loam mines for lost minerals now reconstituted in gloriously unfettered shapes. O’Connor’s fiddle, often taut, is as much at home in a looser, more languid space where their two instruments bounce and jab off of one another in search of the newness in the old. A masterful album design is a beauty to behold, too.
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5. Sooner or Later
By Tara Breen
This is a bravura celebration of the pure drop that is the sound of the fiddle in traditional music. Tara Breen is a multi-faceted musician whose lightness of touch has propelled her fiddle across many collaborations. Sooner or Later is her solo debut, and it’s a joyous, no nonsense exploration of a gorgeous selection of tunes, underscored by a swing that is Breen’s alone. Her inclusion of Corsican Waltz hints at the breadth of her range, but at its heart, Sooner or Later is a highly disciplined collection of tunes: a celebration of the beating heart of our music.
