I took a nice long walk along the Youghal – Midleton greenway yesterday. I had plenty of time to think about how to approach the show going forward. the current plan is to write 3-4 posts in the days leading up to each new show, highlighting some of the artists I’ll be playing that week, and providing links to their work if you’d like to do a deeper dive.
First up this week is the Irish vocal ensemble Anúna. Founded in 1987 as An Uaithne (The Identity) by Michael McGlynn, the Dublin based chorale has released more than a dozen full length recordings over the years. I also sense a bit of kinship in our philosophies of music appreciation. This from Anúna’s biography – “To me music was all the same. I could shuffle on the same cassette tape from Debussy to David Bowie, from Clannad to Ligeti, from Machaut to The Clash. Each piece for me, regardless of the so-called genre of it, had its own story and each story had a validity all of its own.“
That approach informs all of the choices I make in selecting music to play on this show. The only thing that matters is, does each song flow into the next?
Anúna’s newest recording, Eilífð (Icelandic – Eternity), is out available now on the band’s Danú label. I’ll be featuring the track Earth Song (Maalaulu), which is the album’s closer. This piece manages to travel between intimacy and majesty, occasionally living in both modes simultaneously, in less than five minutes. Plus, it’s absolutely gorgeous.
Listen/buy here
Read more here
sounds of the sea 