Harpist Junshi Murakami and concertina player Máire Úna Ní Bheaglaoich will launch their new album, Ceol Uisce, with a performance at Foras na Gaeilge on Wednesday, 13 February at 6pm (admission free).

Ní Bheaglaoich, widely recognised for her regular busking in Dublin city centre, is from a musical family in West Kerry. Murakami is from Tokyo. He came to Ireland to study harp music and now teaches it himself in a number of music schools.

Ceol Uisce is the culmination of their playing tunes together in different settings for many years. ‘We met in the streets of Dublin one day some ten years ago, and we have shared many tunes and much laughter since then,’ Murakami says. ’We wanted to hear a CD with simple, charming tunes, and that’s how we started making this recording. We wanted to include the tunes that Máire heard when she was growing up in Kerry. For me, hearing those tunes and stories was like a journey through the music to the heart of Ireland.’

The otherwise traditional pieces include one original composition, a jig, by Murakami called ‘Fáilte go Cornucopia’.

Track Listing:

1. Deadman’s March
2. Sonny Reardon’s (Dan O’Leary’s), Ag Dul ar na Ráiseanna
3. Paddy O’Brien’s, Little Biddy Daly’s, Battering Ram
4. Charlie Hunter’s, Dark Girl Dressed in Blue, Upperchurch Polka
5. Jig Tom Mhic, Jig na Ceathrún Rua
6. Táimse im’ Chodladh
7. Heather Breeze, Castle Kelly
8. My Favourite Dram, Old Favourite, Fáilte go Cornucopia
9. Fairy Queen
10. An Dró, Bean Sí, Slán le hUisce Beatha
11. Polkas Tom Mhic
12. If There Weren’t Any Women in the World, Showman’s Fancy
13. Ó Beir Mo Dhúthracht

The CD (with beautiful cover art by Siobhán Begley) is available from The Horse Shoe, 85 Capel Street, Dublin 1; Dingle Record Shop; The Chester Beatty Library; at Cornucopia restaurant, Wicklow Street, Dublin 2 when Junshi plays on Friday nights (from 7.30 to 9pm). Contact: ceoluisce [at] gmail.com ().