Éalú, meaning escape, evasion, unheeded elopement, or the passage of time or tide, is the title of a new CD from whistle player Cormac Breatnach, his first in thirteen years. It comes as a ‘shared space’ (as the notes say), ‘drawing on each participant’s recorded contribution, adding varied shades of colour to this album of foreign links’. The long list of seventeen contributors is led by Gavin Ralston who has produced the work and describes in the notes the ‘mammoth task of mixing the whole project’ having assembled the recordings of so many musicians playing separately. Some of those musicians, including singers from Nigeria (Uché Gabriel Akujobi), the Democratic Republic of Congo (Niwell Tsumbu) America (Vanessa Williams), Japan (Kokia) and Ireland (Aoife Doyle and Breatnach), are Robbie Harris, Steve Cooney, Roger Doyle, Fiachra Trench and members of the Spanish group La Musgana. As well as a number of traditional airs and tunes (though no reels), the album contains ten new instrumental compositions by Cormac, as well as four new compositions by other musicians – two by Alan Griffin, one by Roger Doyle and the last by an unknown Spanish composer.

While there are only seven tracks on the CD, they are in long sets ranging from ‘The Universal Sun’ at nearly six minutes to the title track at over nine minutes. The accompanying notes are extensive and feature lyrics by Theo Dorgan, miniature histories of Saint Brigid and Saint Patrick by Niall Ó Callanáin, and notes by Alan Griffin, which describe Breatnach as ‘outside the comfort zone, away on the borderlands, probing, extending the limits of the tradition from within, delighting us with inspired variations often of tunes considered hackneyed …’.

The cover is designed by Robert Ballagh.
 
www.cormacbreatnach.com