THE GLOAMING

The band came together in 2011. It was a musical experiment in collaboration between five like minded musicians. I was looking for an integrated and unique sound, not just something easily thrown together. There was no agenda and no barriers or boundaries to what anybody could contribute. I had worked with and known all the musicians involved for many years and I had an intuitive sense that bringing this combination of people together could produce something very special. It was an exercise in trust and belief that has been very rewarding and satisfying.

Sydney Morning Herald

★★★★★ 

Here was a concert to blaze in the memory. Rather than settling for being one of the great fiddlers of Irish music, Martin Hayes had to ask "What if . . .?", and assemble a band to shroud that music in a fine mizzle of mystery once more. He knows there is no greater disservice to a tradition than slavishness. Reverence, yes, but any tradition must evolve, and The Gloaming should see Irish music thriving for another generation.

Although charged by the traditions of Ireland, what The Gloaming do with the structures of Irish music is anything but simple nostalgia. They introduce deep wells of personality and experience. Lyrics are drawn from the history of Irish literature, old and new. The music is played with the authority of virtuosos. The result is unclouded by sheen or sentimentality. Instead, it's haunting and emotionally charged. It sounds ancient without being a mere reproduction.

Martin, Caoimhín and Dennis have been recognized for extending the Irish and Celtic music traditions, balancing traditional rigor with an energy that seems entirely new. Thomas has been identified with the independent rock scene for his work with artists as diverse as The National,Glen Hansard, and Antony and the Johnsons. Iarla has made many ground breaking recordings with the Afro Celt Sound System, his distinctive voice venturing far beyond the boundaries of any one genre.

In early 2011, the five musicians first met to explore their collaboration at Grouse Lodge Studios in Ireland's County Westmeath, an hour northwest of Dublin. Later that year - newly christened The Gloaming - they went on their first Irish tour, including a sold out debut show at The National Concert Hall, Dublin. The sell-out hints at the excitement surrounding their formation, as does the fact that Ireland's President Michael D Higgins, was in attendance that night. Summer 2013 saw their return with more packed concerts in London, Amsterdam, Paris & New York.

 2014 saw The Gloaming play more shows in the UK, Ireland, Germany, Belgium, Holland, Australia, Canada and America, notably a performance at London's Royal Albert Hall as part of Ireland's President Higgins' state visit to Britain - their appearance a special request from the President. A triumphant return to Dublin's National Concert Hall in Spring 2015 preceded a sell-out show in The Barbican's main hall, followed by the Port Fairy Folk Festival, WOMADdelaide, the Auckland Arts Festival and WOMAD New Zealand

The Gloaming were the worthy winners of the 2014 Meteor Choice Prize for Irish album of the year, fending off competition from Hozier, Aphex Twin, Sinead O'Connor, U2 and Damien Rice.

Live, The Gloaming delivers "a remarkable set … one can only marvel at the intuitive understanding between the five. But it's not just jigs and reels that make them remarkable: the opening Song 44, with Bartlett holding down his piano strings to mute them, and violins scraping ominously, has more in common with post-rock than with Christy Moore. It's a staggering display of both emotion and virtuosity." (The Guardian)

"Vocals, two fiddles, a guitar and a piano - it doesn't sound like a traditional band really," says fiddler Martin Hayes. " It doesn't sound like it should sound." Hayes is the musical centre of The Gloaming - the player sat centre stage at their concerts, while the ethereal voice of the great sean nos singer Iarla Ó Lionáird envelops it."

I remember the first time I heard Martin play," says US pianist Thomas Bartlett, "and there was something that happened to my body that I hadn't experienced before, where I felt like my heart would expand and contract with the way he was playing ." It's a good summation of how many listeners respond to the master fiddler from County Clare.

With Hayes in the string section, Caoimhin Ó Raghallaigh's hardanger fiddle is the music's expressive underworld, probing the depths with drones and abstract textures, setting the reels and airs in a musical chiaroscuro. "Caoimhin was part of a new generation of musicians, young and thoughtful," says Hayes. "It's not so easy in a traditional music form to find your voice; it's a tricky thing, and he did, he found a unique voice and a very unique way of playing."

US guitarist Dennis Cahill's is minimal, percussive, punctuating playing that lifts and amplifies specific spots, like musical acupuncture. "It's the mark of a great piece of music," he says, " when it's bendable, and it doesn't lose its integrity, and I think the tunes are spectacular like that, they can be played in a lot of ways."

Thomas Bartlett's piano is perhaps at the furthest remove from the folk tradition that Iarla, Martin and Caoimhin share. "Maybe why this band is working well," he says, "is that I don't recognize the lines that the rest of this band sees. They're very happy to go outside of those boundaries, but the fact that I don't even know the tradition helps make them disappear make .”
 

Mother Jones (interview)
Contact: The Gloaming's Unlikely Convergence

MEDIA