From the Devil’s Punchbowl

Fresh evidence of a new generation from north of the border adding its own distinctive stamp on Irish traditional music comes in this joyful self-produced debut by County Antrim-born Aaron O’Hagan and Belfast-based Luke Ward. From the Devil’s Punchbowl (the title references a concave limestone quarry on Belfast’s guardian Cave Hill) flies out of the traps with a sizzling set of reels fuelled by O’Hagan’s racing uilleann pipes, Ward’s bouzouki a steady but flexible pacemaker. Fast-paced album closer, ‘O’Mahoney’s/The Graf Spee’, brings proceedings to a no less exhilarating end. In between is a masterly display of two musicians playing with a sophistication, maturity and reciprocity that ought to be beyond their still youthful years and a partnership still in its infancy. Ward’s self-penned, lullaby-tinged ‘Moon Over Muckross’ becomingly illustrates that.

A noted maker of pipes and wooden flutes, O’Hagan puts his mastery of both to fluently imaginative use throughout, Ward nimbly responding to each change of gear and tone. He shows off his flute playing to thrilling effect in the bouzouki-led trio of jigs that includes a glancing homage to fellow-Antrim flute player, Brendan Mulholland, with ‘The Maid on the Green’. There’s strong support, delicately delivered, from Melanie Houton’s fiddle, Cillian King’s keyboards, Robbie Walsh’s bodhrán and Dermot Sheedy’s percussion.