Landless, the four piece comprising Lily Power, Meabh Meir, Ruth Clinton and Sinead Lynch, have been singing hauntingly, achingly beautiful renditions of Irish, Scottish, English and American traditional music since 2013.
Like so many others, this writer has been awestruck dumb by those intricate four part harmonies, but I was entirely unprepared for how incredible ‘Lúireach’ proved to be.
Somewhere between the dizzy heights Lisa Gerrard sometimes reaches, and the spectral sounds conjured by Bulgarian female vocal choirs, skewed through with a darkness that is entirely their own.
The four here, along with sparse and occasional accompaniment from Lankum stringsman Cormac MacDiarmada, have crafted one of the best albums this listener has heard in his many, weary years.
Words: Adhamh Ó Caoimh
