Following the hand of fate which guided them from a remote village in the Austrian Alps to a tiny island in Greece, long time musical collaborators and world wanderers, Irish traditional singer and musician Nuala Kennedy and Dubliner / New Yorker singer songwriter Eamon O' Leary have created an atmospheric new album of songs entitled ‘Hydra’.

Hydra is an island where cars are prohibited and the main mode of transport is by donkey or by foot. Recorded in 'The Old Carpet Factory' an eighteenth century mansion whose large open windows overlook the port, the album vibrates with the unhurried bohemian charm and luscious simplicity that made this place so attractive to past luminaries such as Henry Miller, Patrick Leigh Fermor, Lawrence Durrell, Leonard Cohen and his love Marianne Ihlen…

Indeed Leigh Fermor’s book cover for ‘Mani’, illustrated by the artist John Craxton, inspired the sleeve for 'Hydra’ which depicts a melusine or two-tailed mermaid.

The cover was carved by hand, for wood block print by the renowned old-school printing artist Peter Nevins. Nevins has also produced cover work for Gillian Welch and David Rawlings, and Anais Mitchell who sings backing vocals here on ‘Liffeyside’ alongside Will Oldham (Bonnie Prince Billy) and Cathal McConnell of the Boys of the Lough, who taught Nuala the song.

Other special guests include fiddler Liz Knowles who provides string arrangements on the album, and Brian MacGloinn (Ye Vagabonds) on mandolin.

Nuala and Eamon here present a timeless selection of stories of the sea, of love and courtship, of work and ritual, of emigration, of war… and Hydra reverberates with a palpable sense of space, and delight in storytelling.

European Release August 2024
Available CD / LP / Digital via Bandcamp.