Introducing... TRÚ

Unearthing the old and taking it to places new is a handy definition of the folk process and its presiding spirit of self-renewal. But the idea of folk songs and stories coming to you not from the past but from the future is an even more compelling one. Especially for Northern Irish band TRÚ – Zach Trouton, Dónal Kearney and Michael Mormecha – who take their name from a trio of poet-musicians from ancient Ulster. “They were so revered that their stories were said to come to them from the future,” says Trouton “They were considered as gatekeepers to the otherworld.”

Add to their roster of inspirations the beautiful but deadly Japanese snow spirit of Yuki-Onna – not a million miles away from the troublesome entities of Irish lore – and you enter the ‘otherworld’ of TRÚ’s long-gestated and long-awaited debut, No Fixed Abode. The album is a minimalist and liminal set of Irish and British traditional songs that includes ancient Irish language pieces such as ‘Dúlamán’, made famous by Clannad, as well as laments for Ireland’s oak forests in ‘Bonny Portmore’, a recasting of Dominic Behan’s ‘Patriot Game’, mixed in with words from Bob Dylan and WB Yeats and retitled ‘Rebel Song’, and that cold-hearted Japanese snow spirit cast adrift in ‘The Woodsman’. “We chose to base a song on that because of the similarity of the snow spirit to the spirits that exist in Irish culture, like the banshee and the fairies,” explains Trouton, “We’re half way across the world but it amazes that stories and songs can have the same core message, and the same characters.”

They started work on the album back in 2017, having come together as a cross-cultural Ulster trio combining Irish nationalist, Ulster-Scots and British-Ukrainian heritages – significant at a time in the Provinces’ history where post-Brexit uncertainties have set troublesome flags a-fluttering. Mormecha and Trouton grew up as neighbours in Lisburn, playing in various bands together, before Trouton met Kearney as a member of choral ensemble Anúna, and the three came together as TRÚ. “It’s a unique combination,” says Trouton of their cross-cultural make-up. “Even today, it would be rare enough to have those sorts of groups together, working on the same musical project.”

Recording when the trio were able to gather at Mormecha’s farmhouse studio south of Lisburn, the creative process was an intuitive one. “We would bring a song to the table that we’d like to explore,” says Trouton, “and our core instrumentation is electric guitar, flute, percussion and three-part harmonies. We play the song and the instrumentation tends to guide how it sounds. It’s all done instinctively.”

The album’s title, says Trouton, “defines what we’re doing with the album, and us as a band – although the core is the Ulster folk song tradition, we tackle tunes from across Ireland, and Scottish and English songs too. We don’t feel tied to Irish traditional songs. If it makes sense to us, feels appropriate, we’ll give it a go. This is what the title No Fixed Abode reflects. It also describes the songs themselves. Songs have no home until they’re performed, until they’re alive in the world.”

This article originally appeared in the May 2021 issue of Songlines. Never miss an issue – subscribe today