Traditional Irish sean-nós singer

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Lorcán Mac Mathúna Act description -short Blurb

Northern Lights -short blurb

Lorcán Mac Mathúna Detailed act description

Northern Lights detailed description

 Short promotional description - Lorcán Mac Mathúna

Irish traditional Soul music.

Sean-nós (songs in the old style) is the oldest and most unique strand in Irelands traditional music. The ancient songs of Ireland and their music form the most intrinsic expression of the ancient Irish culture and identity today. Lorcán Mac Mathúna reveals the history and people of Gaelic Ireland as chronicled in its songs and music.

Short promotional description - Northern Lights

Hiberno-Norse song sagas

Northern Lights is a blending of Norse and Irish: sagas, stories, soundscapes, cultural flavours and perspectives, through a meeting of their music and songs.

Like the historic relationship between these cultures the traditional music of both sometimes clashes, creating a musical tension and a creative dissonance. Also, in keeping with that relationship, there is noticeable common ground borne of cultural exchange. Northern Lights delves the separate manifestations of the shared themes of these traditions to form a unique and intriguing cultural dialogue.

Full promotional description - Lorcán Mac Mathúna

Lorcán Mac Mathúna was raised in a background steeped in Irish music and singing. The Gaelic songs of the West and South of Ireland and their unique Sean Nós style was central in his musical nurturing and left an indelible print on him which he carries forward in all his musical life.

With the diminishing of its linguistic heartland Sean nós was quite recently considered an endangered art. It was this fragile and beautiful tradition that Lorcán fell in love with through encounters with the older generation of masters of the tradition whose influence passed through his household directly and indirectly by means of his fathers work as a traditional musician.

Lorcán’s understanding of the soul of sean nós transcends music and story. His presentation retells the sagas of Irish folk history in their original Gaelic, accompanied by instrumental scores that are in perfect empathy with the lyricism of the songs tales. Whether these songs are love songs, laments, war marches, or playful songs of carousing and courting the songs lyricism is perfectly conveyed by the musical symbiosis between his voice and his chosen instrument. Lorcán’s understanding of the songs he sings, and feeling for their emotional currents is matched by a fresh approach to accompaniment rooted in top notch slow air playing.

Lorcán’s style is confident, measured, and engaging. He expresses the feeling of his songs and connects the listener to the emotions of the songs creators. His presentation pricks your curiosity as he shares his enthusiasm for tunes, songs and stories, and the people who carried the tradition from the past.

He has built a relationship with the songs he sings. His style of presentation reflects the story of the song in the cadence and phraseology of the music and words.

Lorcán has toured Ireland and Belgium and has performed in international festivals such as LIFEM09 and Celtic Connections 09. He has performed as a solo singer at IMRAM, the Dublin Irish literature festival, in Bantry house, and in collaborations throughout Ireland.

His album Rógaire Dubh, was described as “captivating and truly extraordinary” by the Living Tradition, “Deep, Dark, and Beautiful” by Songlines who described Lorcán as an “astonishing new voice.” The JMI descried him as having “both the voice and the attitude to place him in the first rank of the new wave of traditional singers”

Full promotional description - Northern Lights

The vibrancy of Norse and Irish musical cultures.

Lorcán Mac Mathúna (voice), Raphael de Cock (voice, pipes (Swedish, Galician etc), uillean pipes, Tuvan harp, Hardangerfelle, Shrutti), and James Mahon (Uillean pipes; flat set and concert set, flutes, whistles).

Northern Lights brings a new program in which Traditional Irish music and Ireland’s oldest singing style, sean nós, is put in contrast to Scandinavian musical traditions and singing styles. In it we use the instruments (uillean pipes, hardanger fiddle, etc) and songs of Norse and Irish cultures to create a discourse between these traditions. It is a blending of Norse and Irish: sagas, stories, soundscapes, cultural flavours and perspectives, through this meeting of their music and songs.

Raphael de Cock first came to my attention through his excellent singing of the traditional Irish song An Droimeann Donn. It is the fact that the song is in Gaelic that made this a veritable achievement as Gaeilge is not a common language in Ireland even, never mind Raphael’s home place of Antwerp.

A little further investigation revealed that Raphael had a deep interest, and understanding of languages and musical traditions and that his command of languages, which he cultivated as a result of his love of the music and singing of many minority traditions, extended to the far reaches of Europe. Scots Gaelic, Gaeilge, Sardinian, Norwegian, were just some of the languages he had mastered well enough to sing.

Raphael also played the emblematic instrument of Ireland, the Uilleann Pipes, and had a more than passing interest in Irish Traditional Music.

Around this time (June 2007) there was a big hullaballoo in the City of Dublin as a relic from an age ago sailed up the liffey and docked at the port outside the Custom House. The Havhingsten fra Glendalough was originally built in Dublin nearly 1,000 years ago from wood which dendrochronologists traced back to Glendalough in the Wicklow Mountains just south of Dublin. The Sea Stallion, as it is called in English, sailed from the, then Norse port of Dublin, to Denmark, where it was eventually scuttled at the mouth of a Fjord to protect against sea raiders.

It was eventually excavated and a reconstruction project was undertaken using original methods and traditional materials. The cities of Dublin and Roskilde worked on a joint project which culminated in a retracing of the original sea journey of the Havhingsten between Denmark and Dublin. The project highlighted some interesting possibilities regarding the cultural traffic that must have existed between these two nations 1000 years ago. For centuries Ireland had been under the influence of Viking invaders. This was not only a hostile relationship, but very often long lasting alliances emerged between the Gaelic population and the Nordic newcomers. Therefore it is not so surprising to discover a lot of similarities in the musical traditions of both regions, and of course, also intriguing differences. This is the focal point of this trio by combining sean-nos singing, Scandinavian kveding (medieval & traditional songstyle), fiddle, uilleann pipes, swedish bagpipes (säckpipa), norwegian hardangerfiddle, harmonic flutes, whistles and percussion.

The third member of the group, James Mahon (Dublin,) is one of the newest generation to master the uillean pipes. His studies of ethnomusicology gave him an insight into the distinctions in style that are manifest of the cultural differences between ethnic traditions. With seven all-Ireland titles under his belt between Flute and Pipes he has excelled amongst his peers. As a student of music his interest and understanding of music goes beyond his own heritage.

It is interesting that in traditional music each place develops its own flavour, that while there may be similarities and influences there are still very divergent differences. So we asked could we find common themes.

We also wanted to highlight the differences between the traditions. Do they compliment each other? Do they clash? Is this more of a confrontation than a collaboration?

The result, Northern Lights, makes connections based on common tonality, delivery, theme, rhythm, and timing between our older music types such as Kveding (the medieval singing of Scandinavia) and Aislings, marches, and laments. And also between some of the newer dance tune forms such as jigs and polska’s.

The final presentation delivers these aims with beautiful and intriguing results.