The latest CD release reviewed

GERRY O'CONNOR & GILLES LE BIGOT
En Concert Lughnasa Music ****

Gerry O'Connor's fiddle and Gilles le Bigot's guitar make cosy bedfellows on this live Breton recording. O'Connor's clean, unfussy style is at its absolute best on Mál Bhán, a variation on Molly Na gCuach Ní Chuilleanáin, which segues beautifully into the genteel reel The Destitution. There's a haughty, baroque grandeur to O'Connor's solo fiddle on another reel set headlined by Bonny Anne, its formality softened later when le Bigot's guitar sidles up alongside him for Travers and Sporting Nell. We've been spoilt by the guitar lines of Arty McGlynn and Steve Cooney, but Gilles le Bigot brings his own inimitable rhythmic and melodic sensibilities to this Irish-Breton-Scots mix of tunes: treading a fine line between languid accompaniment and muscular counterpoint to O'Connor's effortless, fine-boned playing. www.gerryoconnor.net Siobhán Long