Title - '3'
Artist - The Gloaming
For those not in the know, The Gloaming is a contemporary Irish/American music group formed in 2011 comprising fiddle player Martin Hayes, guitarist Dennis Cahill, vocalist Iarla Ó Lionáird, fiddle player Caoimhín Ó Raghallaigh, and pianist and producer Thomas Bartlett (aka Doveman).
The group has been credited with an original retake on the vernacular of traditional Irish music through a modern prism via elements of post-rock, jazz, contemporary classical, chamber, and minimalism.
Lyricist Ó Lionáird often uses motifs, poetic verse and whole songs from the ancient Irish canon, with some lyrics dating back centuries.
Indeed, The Gloaming's music has been described as a genre of its own while also drawing comparisons with diverse acts such as Sigur Ros, Brian Eno, Arvo Part, Buena Vista Social Club, Tortoise, Steve Reich, and Seán Ó Riada.
On February 22nd, 2019, world renowned Irish American supergroup The Gloaming returned with their highly anticipated third studio album entitled 3.
Produced by Thomas Bartlett (Sufjan Stevens, St. Vincent) and engineered by Patrick Dillett (David Byrne, Laurie Anderson), the album was recorded in New York City at Reservoir Studios.
Like its predecessors, The Gloaming (2014) and The Gloaming 2 (2016), it richly re-imagines the vernacular of traditional Irish music through a modern prism via elements of post-rock, jazz, contemporary classical, chamber and minimalism.
1. 'Meáchan Rudaí (The Weight of Things)' (07:46 )
2. 'The Lobster' (06:53 )
3. 'Áthas (Joy)' (04:49)
4. 'The Pink House' (08:39)
5. 'Reo' (07:47)
6. 'The Old Road to Garry' (03:31)
7. 'Sheehan’s Jigs' (07:24)
8. 'My Lady who has Found the Tomb Unattended' (05:12)
9. 'Doctor O'Neill' (10:36)
10. 'Amhrán na nGleann (The Song of The Glens)' (07:39)
From the very off, the earthy, dulcet minimalism of their Irish heritage seeps majestically through on the hauntingly ethereal 'Meáchan Rudaí (The Weight of Things)' (which features extracts from the late Liam Ó Muirthile’s prose poem of the same name) which they back up with the strikingly crisp fiddle work of Hayes on 'The Lobster' and then the dulcet piano work of Bartlett on 'Áthas (Joy)' (which is taken from Ó Muirthile’s Camino de Santiago pilgrimage poems).
Hayes' impeccable fiddle work comes to the fore once again on the captivating 'The Pink House' with the foreboding Seán Ó Ríordáin poem 'Reo' backing it up. One of my own personal favorites is up next in the form of the Traditional Irish fare of the upbeat and fun (and complete with piano/fiddle duet) 'The Old Road to Garry', with the mid-tempo and joyously hopeful Celtic notes of 'Sheehan’s Jigs' yet another stand out track.
The intense storytelling of the melancholic 'My Lady who has Found the Tomb Unattended' (which features the 17th-century poetry of Eoghan Ruadh Mac an Bhaird) is a masterpiece all unto itself with the album coming to a close with the longest track on the album, the ten minute recounting of 'Doctor O'Neill' and then 'Amhrán na nGleann (The Song of The Glens)' allows Ó Lionáird's masterful and warmly invigorating vocal tones to truly excel.
On an album whose cover art couldn't portray more the actual feel of the contained music if it tried, listening to this near seventy minute long album proves, without a shadow of a doubt that The Gloaming are a band whose cultivated sound of classical chamber built within restructured Irish heritage is as freeing, as moving and as invigorating to the soul to listen to today as I'm sure it was back then.
Official CD Purchase Link
www.thegloaming.net/home
An introduction to The Gloaming
The Gloaming @ Facebook