One of my favorite contemporary Irish musicians is the composer and concertina master Pádraig Rynne. His command of the instrument and his strength in both traditional and modern styles is remarkable.
Airneán is the brand new album by his long standing band project Notify, and it continues his endeavors in folk and jazz fusion, or a subgenre I like to call progressive folk.
With a playing time of just 37 minutes, the album comes across as a fairly compact experience. Containing material both original and traditional, the overall feel I get is pretty relaxed and calm, even in the faster tunes. I don’t think there are any improvised solos here – although I might be mistaken – but instead there’s a lot of very disciplined, very rich and warm playing. And the vocals in the songs are absolutely enchanting.
Oftentimes calling a work “pleasant” indicates critical or even negative judgment by the person expressing their opinion. But in this case, I use that adjective because Airneán, for all its fusion elements, is really not that challenging or groundbreaking.
I have listened to the album several times now and it feels good to me; I keep returning to it for the pleasure of great musicianship and the tunes. And it’s not superficial – there is something extra in this music that I cannot put my finger on; something that makes it… meaningful, for want of a better word.
FolkNotes 