The Seven Suns

John McSherry's second solo outing proves to be a lyrical and lively celebration of Ireland's rich hinterland of myth and fable, via its abundant megalithic heritage, its mysterious carved stones, imposing dolmens and passage tombs. For the former Lúnasa founder, The Seven Suns also marks the meeting of modern science and ancient wisdom in the shared notion that ‘every leaf, atom, planet, galaxy and every cell in our body is humming its own tune.’ Certainly, in the subterranean tremors of McSherry's uilleann pipes and airy lightness of his whistles, there's much here to connect the past and present in tunes that sound as grounded as the legends they narrate are fanciful.

There's an ebullience to ‘Dance of the Síog’, a pacy tribute to Ireland's other-worldly spirits given momentum by McSherry's dancing pipes and Seán Óg Graham's flighty guitar. ‘Sunset Land’ is a nebulous, slow-moving stream of low whistle lit up by electric guitar while ‘The Whisperer’ evocatively entwines whistle, guitar and ex-Lúnasa colleague Michael McGoldrick's flute. Typically McSherry bridges the traditional and the new with ease: Graham's electric guitar and Sean Warren's cello spice up ‘The King of Dal Buinne’ and ‘The Cloghole’. They are nimbly rounded off by ‘Jackson's Favourite’, a popular session reel in McSherry's native Belfast.