Description:
(2021) Aisling Lyons - Aistear
Review:
Evidence that Aisling Lyons is the finest young Irish harpist at work today comes in the eight-time All-Ireland champion’s debut on disc, Aistear (‘Journey’). Steeped in a tradition largely drawn from her deep-rooted County Clare heritage, Lyons shows herself alert to contemporary developments elsewhere, her bright, beautiful, singing harp emerging out of ambient landscapes of shoreline-lapping waves in the opening pairing of John McEvoy’s ‘On the Edge’ and her self-penned ‘Martha’s Hop Jig’, and from within midsummer birdsong in the lovely and loving ‘Tune for Dad’, written for her father shortly before his death. Accompanying herself with equally expressive dexterity on concertina, and with occasional support from guitarists Seán Lyons and Jens Kommnick, Fergal Scahill’s fiddle and viola, the pulsing bodhrán and double-bass of Dermot Sheedy and Paul O’Driscoll, the result, pristinely recorded by Martin O’Malley, is a recital of gossamer delicacy and delight. There’s sprightly humour, too, in the portrait of Lyons’ sleeping dog, ‘Buster’s Dreams’, and alert nimbleness of Kevin Jones’ ‘Itchy Fingers’, coupled with the glistening glamour of the Turlough O’Carolan-credited ‘Cremonea’. Lead single, ‘Buíochas’ (Thanks), tributes Lyons’ alma mater, the Irish World Academy of Music and Dance in Limerick, album closer ‘Raindrops/Dnaza Guairena’ deftly pairing Cormac Breathnach’s onomatopoeic reverie with a sparkling Paraguayan polka.
Track List:
1.Hop Jigs: On the Edge/Martha's Hop Jig 04:18
2.Hornpipe & Reels: Buster's Dreams/Pigtown/The West Clare Reel/The Boxing Reel 05:49
3.Air: Tune for Dad 03:08
4.Jigs: Cregg/The Fiddler's Jacket/Helvic Head 05:16
5.Cremonea/Itchy Fingers 03:48
6.Hornpipes: The Old Harvest Home/Newcastle Hornpipe/Thomand Bridge 04:59
7.Jigs: With You in Whitby/Room 2.40/Être Fleur Bleue 04:52
8.Reels: Mulqueeny's/Frenzied/Drumline Castle 03:53
9.March & Polkas: Jamsey Gannon's March/Fort of the Pond/Through the Roof 04:52
10.Reels: M&M/The Braes of Busby/The Bunch of Green Rushes 04:19
11.Buíochas 03:46
12.Raindrops/Dnaza Guairena 04:41
Media Report:
Genre: acoustic, folk
Country: Ireland
Format: FLAC
Format/Info: Free Lossless Audio Codec, 16-bit PCM
Bit rate mode: Variable
Channel(s): 2 channels
Sampling rate: 44.1 KHz
Bit depth: 16 bits
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