With my limited funds, I always hope for a good return on my spending. This time I definitely backed the right horse. My (very) modest Kickstarter contribution To Muireann Nic Amhlaoibh’s new CD helped produce something astonishing.
Foxglove & Fuschia (MUNA 002) is very Irish, split between Irish (Gaelic) and English, and is brilliantly executed. The recording is without fault, but more importantly, her already heady gifts have stepped into another realm altogether. Her Irish flute and whistle playing is now second to none that I have heard. The real shock is her vocals. Her control over her voice is now up there with the late Thad Jones’s control over his trumpet.
Recorded in West Kerry with local musicians – who it ends up are second to none – this is not pub music but rather something more emotional and subtle, which has been typical of Muireann’s recordings as a leader. My lifetime of listening to music of all stripes leaves me with no concept of how to improve this recording.
The title track is something very different for her. The vocal comes from a place other than Celtic music, more akin to the tools in a “Classical” or even a Jazz vocalist's box. It is subtle, no showing off here, and it serves the material to perfection. This song is beautiful, just lovely. I did not know she could do this style.
Throughout the CD, her control of pitch, timbre, dynamics, and vibrato is remarkable, more so because the subtlety in no way hampers emotion or accessibility. She has become a World class vocalist. Not to take away from her playing, which has grown to match her singing.
If there is any chance that this genre of music is anything you might remotely enjoy, this recording is completely recommended. Not my words, but her work on this CD has been described as
"Mysterious Perfection." Available on her website through Bandcamp for fifteen Euros. CD Baby so far has only the download. Not on Importcds yet.
http://www.muireann.ie/