This week's traditional release reviewed.
HARRY BRADLEY AND MICHAEL CLARKSON
The Pleasures of Hope Claddagh Records ****
Ciaran Carson reckons the Sligo/Leitrim/Roscommon region is a musical Bermuda Triangle where musicians can disappear for days, “deep into the crack”.
Belfast fluteplayers Harry Bradley and Michae Clarkson are more animated by the journey than by any cosy notions of destination on this raging torrent of a collection.
From the closing pair of tunes, featuring the title track (a hornpipe inherited from Seamus Ennis) alongside an Italian/Scots slingshot, to the spitfire opener,
The Spey in Spate,
the Banks, these trapeze artists chew up not just a northwestern repertoire but tunes from the rushy glen of Sliabh Luachra and sundry points east and west.
Finely interrogated tunes paired with forensically researched sleeve notes reveal layers of thoughtful and mischievous music. Endless fodder for fluters, fiddlers and jesters alike. www.claddaghrecords.com.
