A QUARE Yield is the new debut album from Irish traditional music duo Alan Reid and Rachel Conlan.
The duo have researched and recorded a diverse selection of tunes from field recordings and old manuscripts, with many previously unrecorded tunes appearing on the album.
Their tight arrangements and steady rhythm prevails, with sparse but inventive use of ornamentation and variation.
Alan and Rachel met whilst studying music in University of Limerick's Irish World Academy where Alan now teaches. Over the years they have played countless gigs together while honing their driving style of unison playing.
New and interesting repertoire was utilised as a method to maintain their musical fitness and this album represents the survivors; the tunes that caught on and remained in their collective memory when performing.
Alan Reid hails from Killargue in north county Leitrim. A highly adept multi-instrumentalist he can be heard here playing banjo, bouzouki, mandolin and oud. Alan featured on the compilation CD, Leitrim Equation 3, a few years ago.
In a more musically progressive setting he can he heard rocking out with the band Arum whose album was launched in March 2016.
Rachel Conlan is a fiddler from Blessington, county Wicklow with musical roots in North Connaught and West Clare.
She is in demand as a performer and teacher around the country. On tracks 10 and 11 we get to hear Rachel's hardanger fiddle. On the Norwegian instrument one can hear the ethereal resonances and harmonics created by the sympathetic strings which would not be audible on the standard 4 string fiddle.
The Burren in County Clare which is now home to both musicians is beautifully represented on the album cover. A sense of place has always filtered its way into their music as can be heard on the varied track list.
The Craoibhín's Salute is a march from Limerick collector Francis Roche which appears in the second volume of The Roche Collection of Traditional Irish Music published in 1912 and composed by Giollabhríde Ó Catháin.
The '98 is a rousing 1798 rebellion era march they learned from John Carty during their university years, and recently rediscovered via P.W. Joyce's unpublished manuscripts digitised by the Irish Traditional Music Archive.
In the liner notes Ronan Browne says "the music is welcoming, warm and engaging; it is gently dynamic, and in no way brash; its dynamics are subtle, refined, totally unpretentious; it has a unified coherence and comfortable pace – we are never jolted by sudden surprise moves which might break the spell cast by Rachel and Alan.”
“The duo have taken confident ownership of these tunes, harvested from such diverse sources.
"Over and over I find myself being surprised at tunes origins – listening to The Pride of Kildare, for example, I cannot conjure up how Padraig O’Keeffe might have actually sounded playing it, yet it sounds just like Alan Reid and Rachel Conlan!
"Equally, The '98 march is something I could picture being played on 2 fifes but it would have sounded completely different to Rachel and Alan's approach, so much so that again I find it difficult to hear that 'other view’ of it, much preferring how it is played here.
"In fact, I wouldn’t be surprised to hear this track as part of the soundtrack to an open-skied scene in a western film.”
The album was recorded in Maree, Galway with Sean Horsman at the desk. Alan's Arum band-mate Marty Barry was also drafted in for guitar backing on a couple of the tracks.
SOMA'S SUMMER SOUNDS
YOU have to admit we are very lucky in this country that we can organise music festivals in some of the most beautiful areas in the country and that is certainly true about the Soma festival which is hurtling towards us at a rate of knots.
With events in Castlewellan and Newcastle, the mountains of Mourne will sweep down to hear the likes of Martha Wainwright, David Gray, Ríoghnach Connolly and many others in what has become one of the country’s not-to-be-missed summer festivals.
Soma, as you might know, was an intoxicating drink prepared from a long-forgotten plant and used in Vedic ritual. In ancient India, it was believed ed to be the drink of the gods and gave its drinkers immortality.
With Irish being an Indo-European language, it’s not surprising that east and west should meet for a feast of intoxicating music, health and beauty, Irish language events and much, much more.
It says a lot about the skill and tenacity of festival organiser Tíona McSherry, that some of music’s top names are heading to County Down for the Soma Festival.
So, who's playing?
English singer-songwriter David Gray will play a special concert for the Soma Festival on Friday July 21 in Down Cathedral, Downpatrick.
Twenty-one years since his first studio album, David Gray’s 10th and latest, Mutineers, finds the singer-songwriter steering into unfamiliar territory
"I think if you’re going forward with an open heart, good things will happen," says David. "You have to sort of tear up the past and let it go."
David’s past includes the phenomenal success of White Ladder (seven million copies sold), one of three number one albums, with records that became ubiquitous and others that needed to be sought out to be heard.
It’s a richness of terrain and experience over a duration that belies the traditions and expectations of popular music as surely as the songs themselves.
"We are beyond excited to have been able to add David Gray to the festival line-up. He’s a giant in his field and he has a strong fanbase in this part of the world," said festival director Tíona McSherry.
Also heading to south Down is Martha Wainwright. With an undeniable voice and an arsenal of powerful songs, Martha is a beguiling performer and a refreshingly different force in music.
Her third album, San Fusils, Ni Souliers A Paris: was an homage to the great Edith Piaf, which received glowing reviews, leaving audiences stunned by Martha’s incredible range and talent. Her latest album, Goodnight City is thought to be her best record yet.
This is just the tip of the Soma iceberg. You'll find full details at Somafestival.com.
