A line-up of the country’s best concertina players: Tim Collins, Pádraig Rynne, Edel Fox, Caitlín Ní Gabhann, Micheál Ó Raghallaigh

ICE - The Irish Concertina Ensemble brings together, for the first time, five internationally renowned and leading exponents of the Anglo Concertina. Conceived of and directed by Tim Collins, ICE creates a new sonic template for Irish traditional music on the Anglo concertina. Situating it within this quintet format pioneers an exciting and innovative performance trajectory for the concertina where its melodic, percussive, rhythmic and harmonic boundaries can be explored and redefined. The quintet’s long-anticipated debut recording ‘Zero’ was released in 2015 and it comprises of a highly interesting and experimentally-arranged repertoire of music that not only draws on established melodies within the canon of Irtish traditional music, but also on material from other traditions as well as newly composed material written specifically for the ensemble. It has received very positive reviews:

“Zero” is a forward thinking and eminently listenable album that truly extends the concertina’s voice… A unique musical vision, all brought under the umbrella of modern studio technique, has given this fascinating project rich results.
Dan Neely, Irish Echo