Press
Hot Press like Foxlight
IARLA O'LIONAIRD
Foxlight - Real World Records
SPACE AGE THRILLS FROM ETHEREAL FOLKIE
This is Iarla O'Lionaird's third solo album. It is a truly haunting record, as O'Lionaird's voice is juxtaposed with a broad palette of sonic textures.
Opener "The Heart Of The World" has seductive Eastern overtones while there's an ethereal quality to Norwegian singer Sara Marielle Gaup's wordless keening vocal on the evocative "Daybreak". A meditative stillness infuses "Seven Suns", "Eleanor Plunkett" and "Fainne Gan An Lae". Elsewhere. O'Lionaird eases for the more lightly ornamented "The Goat Song", which adheres closely to the Irish vocal tradition. The title track one of the album's most compelling, featuring delicious strings and sparse percussion. And time stands still through the wonderful "Stay"
Build around O'Lionaird's stirring voice and the musical artistry of Leo Abrahams, Foxlight also features the magical skills of Simon Edwards, Graham Henderson and Neil McColl. It would be sacrilege to treat this as mere chill-out music as some have suggested. Foxlight takes listeners to distant musical planets from which they may not wish to return.
Four Stars
Jackie Hayden
Hot Press
Irish Times praise Foxlight (Real World Records)
Iarla Ó Lionáird has ploughed an idiosyncratic furrow for so long that he stands alone in Irish music. Often dismissed for his attempts at enhancing his sean-nós stylings with experimental touches that hint of too much exposure to the avant garde, Ó Lionáird breaks new creative ground with Foxlight , his second solo album. A collaborative process lends effective nuances: Jon Hopkins, Leo Abrahams (who also produced), Leafcutter John, Graham Henderson, Caoimhín Ó’Rathalliagh and Neil MacColl each add their creative tuppenceworth.
The result is not so much a fusion or synthesis as a melting pot of sublime pure- note singing, a charming sense of almost monastic oddness, and some of the most sky-kissing melodies you’ll hear all year. Ask me if I understand what Ó Lionáird is singing about and I’ll say I haven’t a clue – the language is as much an instrument as any that features on the record
4 Stars
Tony Clayton-Lea
The Irish Times
Press for Donnacha Dennehy: Gra agus Bas (Nonesuch) with Iarla O’Lionaird
“At its centre is a darkly mesmerising vocal contribution from Iarla Ó Lionáird, who confirms his standing as the most articulate exponent of sean nós of his generation.”
5 Star Review Songlines UK
“As listeners to this recording will hear from the very first bar, the [O’Lionaird’s] voice itself is astonishing. At times it has a Bjorling-like sweetness; at other it seems ready to cross the line from lyrical singing to a kind of raw, despairing outcry. How many singers are there who could put across the work's devastating conclusion as he does here?”
The Bangkok Post
“The result was the remarkable 2007 Grá agus Bás (Love and Death), in which the voice of sean-nós singer Iarla Ó Lionáird was the starting point not only for the vocal lines of Dennehy's work, but for the textures that support and envelop them. It's a piece of startling freshness, with Ó Lionáird's voice at the centre of a seething web of instrumental lines that seems to commute freely between utterly different musical worlds without any trace of dislocation.”
5 Star Review The Guardian
“If this recording has anything in common with the crossover genre of “Celtic music,” it might be its potential to delight a large audience. And if it’s cultural tourism, it’s on a very high level.”
The Washington Post
“`Grá agus Bás - Irish sean-nós (old style) vocal music with its keen, ornate flourishes meets classical neo-minimalism in composer Donnacha Dennehy's "Grá agus Bás" (Love and Death). Over its 24-minute length, the voice of Iarla Ó Lionáird (Afro Celt Sound System) is enveloped by the electronic and chamber sounds of Dennehy's Crash Ensemble. Result: a swirling, pulsing timbral odyssey, both ancient and novel in feel.”
Seattle Times
“haunting and utterly bracing title work, sung in Gaelic by vocalist Iarla Ó Lionáird, whose initial honey-sweet murmurs rise through anxiety and morph irrevocably into churning, roaring terror.”
Top 25 Releases of The Year So Far, NPR.
Iarla O'Lioniard - Press Quotes
"Genius is the operative word here" Time Out
"One of the most dramatic voices in contemporary music" The Guardian
"O'Lionaird's real triumph is his voice: as soft as a feather bed and as searingly sharp as a blade when the mood calls" The Irish Times
"His voice will astound you. It soars - and it's as profound, simple and beautiful as wild horses... Genius is the operative word here. Traditionalists will be spellbound, newcomers will be intrigued and wanna-bes will change careers. Count yourself lucky to hear an artist like this once in your lifetime" Time Out New York
"...quite otherworldly beauty" Time Out
"Indominatable spirit and internal beauty.. soul singing in the truest sense" Songlines
"The finest sean nos singer to be found anywhere in these islands today" Hot Press
"A refreshing and quite captivating take on Sean Nos, one of the most ancient of Ireland's musical traditions" Rolling Stone
"Solitary and mournful yet capable of flights of beauty" The Guardian
"You won't forget the voice. A quiet storm" Mojo
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