BUILLE

  Niall Vallely, Caoimhin Vallely, Brian Morrissey, Ed Boyd and Kenneth Edge

Formed in Cork in 2004 by three Armagh refugees – brothers Niall & Caoimhín Vallely with Paul Meehan- Buille have blazed a trail through traditional and contemporary music, releasing two critically lauded genre defying albums and performing hundreds of concerts all over the world. Although the line-up has evolved over the years, the freshness and originality of the music has remained constant. Buille, which is the Irish for beat or strike, only partly describes the impact of the Buille sound which was described by the Irish Times as “as fresh a breath that’s blown through traditional (and roots) circles in a long, long time.” The music, which is all newly composed, draws its influences from jazz, blues, Eastern Europe, contemporary classical music, and of course their own roots in the Irish tradition. Their debut album, simply titled ‘Buille’ and released in 2005, was produced by Donald Shaw and released on his Vertical Records label. It quickly catapulted the group into the public consciousness and appearances at major festivals all over the world and extensive radio and TV coverage followed. The ‘sequel’, which had the even more imaginative title of ‘Buille 2’, was released in 2009 and cemented their position as one of the most unique and exciting bands on the touring folk circuit. The Journal of Music put it “Quite simply this album represents the best of what contemporary traditional music is”. Over the course of 2011 and 2012 the band organised a series of experimental concerts in Cork entitled ‘Junctions – New Musical Encounters’, where they invited a collection of their musical heroes to perform with them. The diverse line-ups included, such luminaries as Béla Fleck, Martin Hayes, Michael McGoldrick, Jean Michel Veillon, Jacky Molard, Mairtin O’Connor, Cathal Hayden, Steve Cooney, Dónal Lunny and many others. The resultant collaborations have sown the seeds for the latest chapter in the Buille project, which will be a live album of new music inspired by the original Junctions series. This will be recorded in the Ionad Cultúrtha in Baile Mhúirne, and released in Spring 2015. Buille are: Niall Vallely – concertina; Caoimhín Vallely – piano; Ed Boyd – guitar; Brian Morrissey – bodhrán; Kenneth Edge - soprano saxophone