TRADITIONAL

Latest CD releases reviewed

Unwrapping Dreams Wren Records
****

The West Ocean String Quartet inhabit a sparsely populated world where Irish traditional and classical music intersect - with often magnificent results. Their long-awaited début is a bravura escapade: four musicians pitching cello, violin and fiddle into a maelstrom where the discipline and structure of classical music is cross-fertilised by the more emotionally charged and freewheeling flourishes of the tradition. Ultimately what matters is the success of the mating. Listening to the roguish whippersnapping of cellist Neil Martin's The Queen of the Scals, not to mention the (r)evolutionary circuitry of Sliabh Na mBan, as it segues into a Charlie Lennon jig, cossetted by Ken Rice's viola and the twin violins of Seamus McGuire and Niamh Crowley, it appears that a rumbunctious tribe is in the making. www.wrenrecords.ie  - Siobhán Long

The Thing Itself Claddagh Records
***

East Galway and west Clare boundaries coalesce in this gathering of fiddle and flute tunes, celebrating the tradition yet cosy enough to breathe fresh life into old tunes, too, without a trace of aspic in sight. O'Loughlin's west Clare flute style has long been relished, his fluid phrasing and feisty passion for the tunes belie a lifetime of imbibing the music of his home place. Donnelly's fiddle can hardly deny her east Galway roots, with her delight in dance tunes and polkas as different to the west Kerry style as black pudding and soya milk. Aided by forensic sleeve notes tracing the seed, breed and generation of every set, this is a collection that's sure to wend its way into many a musician's knapsack. www.claddaghrecords.com -

Siobhán Long