duggup

Back in the late Nineties, Jools and I were lucky enough to see a new Irish Band called Lunasa at the Continental (sadly defunct and missed), I thought they were brilliant, some people said the music was played too fast but I think that they weren’t listening quick enough.

Their music was blindingly fast, and cleverly arranged, they are truly gifted musicians and seemed to be more interested in investigating the rhythmic possibilities of Irish music rather than the melody. This was a pretty nifty concept at the time, and one that is still being explored today.

For a band with such an amazing presence when playing live, it It took them until 2004 to record a live album, (well live-in-the-studio) “The Kinnitty Sessions”…

Recorded before an invited audience of friends and supporters in the supposedly-haunted walls of Irelands Kinnitty Castle, the album is clearly the work of an ensemble in peak form. Sharpened by constant touring and endless refinement of the material in a live setting, The Kinnitty Sessions is the most inventive and intense recording yet from Lúnasa, capturing the vitality and interplay of their concert appearances with a rich, crystal-clear studio sound. The album received a nomination for Folk Album Of The Year in the BBC Radio 2 Awards. It was also voted Best Traditional Album of 2005 by the readers of Irish Music Magazine.

It’s a great album, but in 2006 Lúnasas headlined a concert at Dublin’s National Concert Hall. The concert was recorded by RTE Radio One and the really good news is that it can be found at the RTE Radio Late Session website. They have split it into two parts, Programme 42: 18th July 2007 and Programme 43: 25th July 2007 ( I am pretty sure that this is basically the lineup I saw at the National Folk Festival a few years back).

You need to hear this band play, you need to hear this band play live (if they are playing near you just go), and you will need to have Real Audio installed to listen to the concert , but it’s worth it (and there is a bit of the show that precedes it on the recording so Don’t Panic,).

This concert reminds me so much of the performance Jools and I saw 10 years earlier.

Really Highly Recommended.

Websites: http://www.lunasa.ie/ or http://www.myspace.com/lunasaofficia and there is another “Live in the Studio” performance at NPR’s website