Nine Waves

For their second album on the excellent River Lea label, Diarmuid and Brían Mac Gloinn, aka Ye Vagabonds, are joined by cellist Kate Ellis and double bassist Caimin Gilmore from Irish contemporary classical group Crash Ensemble, who sound as if they are reconstructing themselves and their instruments from the ground up on the 43-second tracks ‘Tuaim’ and ‘Fuaim’, and later on Nine Waves’ first single, the heartfelt ‘Blue is the Eye’, written for a late family friend from the island of Arranmore.

Recorded by Lankum producer John ‘Spud’ Murphy, Nine Waves includes plenty of musical guests: concertina player Cormac Begley, Ryan Hargadon on piano and sax, and Alain McFadden’s harmonium. The brothers’ voices build close harmonies on the album’s second single, the reflective ebb and flow of ‘Go Away and Come Back Hither’, and meld close on the big ballads ‘Lord Gregory’ and ‘Her Mantle So Green’, while ‘Joyáil’ is a haunting instrumental and a stand-alone high point. But perhaps the finest performance is saved for the final ‘Máire Bhán’, a traditional Ulster love song that’s utterly haunting, the more so with Ryan Hargadon’s limpid piano lines scattered like fairy lights in the background.