O'Brien, Ultan: Dancing The Line (Vinyl LP)

Ultan O’Brien is a fiddle player and composer from the wilds of County Clare in the West of Ireland. Ultan is a performer as well as a regular at sessions all of Ireland and can be found by chance in any pub in Dublin, Cork or some remote village on the edge of nowhere, flying jigs and reels around the room. Ultan was reared in the rich tradition of Irish music which is so commonly found and heard in Co Clare, but he also delves deep into sound art and experimental music.

He has often been heard in the back of a car after a few pints quoting lines from Alvin Lucier or speaking at length about improvisation and it’s place in modern Irish music. Ulatn O’Brien is a fresh and vital player who has much to offer with his unique approach and technique to a tradition so old and ever ready for a subtle change every 100 years or so.

From the artist -

This album, Dancing The Line, is my first solo album of music played on an alternatively-tuned alto fiddle. I find that the resonance and growl of this lower-tuned instrument sits me perfectly into the sound-world I want to be in, free to nestle into the traditional music I grew up with and to compose away.

1. Iron Mountain Foothills
2. Game of Love
3. The Boyne Hunt
4. It was In The Year Eighteen Hundred And Four
5. Wayside Wonders
6. Domhnall Na Griana / The Butcher’s March
7. The Four Courts / Rolling In The Barrel
8. Fisherman’s Garden
9. Macha
10. Packie’s Pandemonium
11. Banbha’s Ruins
12. Down In Whitestrand
13. Secret House In Fintra Beg
14. Death Doula Meet