In 2014, the Model Arts Centre in Sligo commissioned Irish contemporary traditional septet Ensemble Ériu to write new music during a two week residency. The Model is home to the Niland Collection which includes 42 paintings by Irish artist Jack Butler Yeats (1871 – 1957). Composed as a response to the paintings held there and […]
concertina
Ensemble Ériu: Imbas
Rooted in the traditional styles of North and West Clare, Ensemble Ériu is a unique combination of young Irish musicians revisiting a familiar repertoire with a highly original and innovative perspective. Following up on the band’s self-titled début in 2013 and released in June 2016 last on Raelach Records (in association with Ensemble Records), Imbas introduces […]
Ensemble Ériu: Jurna
“Ensemble” is a great word choice: it conveys the idea of a group of musicians playing in the field of either classical, contemporary or jazz music, while in the Irish context, composer Seán Ó Riada’s band Ceoltóirí Chualann introduced the idea of ensemble playing in traditional Irish music in the early 1960s. The music of […]
Martin Hayes and Mary MacNamara: John Naughton’s/Tommy Coen’s
Featuring Martin Hayes on the fiddle and Mary MacNamara on the concertina, this is a vintage clip dating back to 1981 from the RTE TV archives (available on the Come West Along the Road DVD). In the Irish traditional music context, musicians from East Clare tend to play jigs, reels and hornpipes at a slower pace and […]
