The Gloaming have found a way to fuse and transform Irish traditions, in the process re-defining what Irish music can be. The new album was recorded in December 2015 at Real World Studios, produced by Thomas Bartlett (Sufjan Stevens, Glen Hansard) and engineered and mixed by Patrick Dillett (David Byrne & St.Vincent, The National).
While Ireland is a small nation, the diversity in styles between traditional music players from different counties and parishes a few dozen miles apart is a thing of no small wonder. The backgrounds of The Gloaming’s three Irish members show the strength and colour of this ecosystem.
Hayes hails from County Clare, where a slow, contemplative, and melancholic sweep of fiddle music holds sway amongst its musicians. A move to America burnished his sound with new idioms, ranging from Arvo Pärt to Sigur Ros. Still very much an East Clare fiddler, Hayes has brought this age-old sound into a modern setting without losing its essence. Hayes’s fellow fiddler is Dublin-born Ó Raghallaigh, whose head was turned by minimal, experimental sounds. His ability to mine the space and texture between the notes with his customized fiddle, part Norwegian Hardanger and part viola d’amore, has produced some groundbreaking work.
Ó Lionáird hails from West Cork, where Sean-nós singing - solo singing unaccompanied by any instrument - is passed down the generations. The songs cover a multitude of material: historical events, love poems or bittersweet accounts of loss and emigration, and, of course, songs about drinking and devilment. An exponent of this dark, passionate, and ancient art, Ó Lionáird has taken a unique, indelibly Irish voice and lyrics drawn from Irish literature into new terrain. He has recorded a number of albums for Real World Records and became a choice collaborator for composers like Nico Muhly, Gavin Bryars, and Donnacha Dennehy.
The cast of The Gloaming has proven transformative with the addition of guitarist Cahill, an American from Dingle, County Kerry stock, and Bartlett, who has worked with Antony and the Johnsons, Sufjan Stevens, Glen Hansard, The National, Sam Amidon, and many more. With Cahill and Bartlett’s musical dexterity and shaping, The Gloaming’s reels and jigs attain new and exhilarating heights. It’s a bold and brave combination that creates the distinctive, bracing sound of music then and now, perfectly in tune.
The Gloaming 2 will be released by Real World Records on Feb 26th CD/DL/Double Vinyl
You can hear album track Wanderer below