New Releases (1 June)

Emer Mayock who features on ‘Mná na bPíob Uilleann’, the first album collection of music by female uilleann pipers.

New Releases (1 June)

The Journal of Music's regular round-up of recent albums and singles, including CMAT, Slow Moving Clouds, Daniel Luke, Dani Larkin, Síle Denvir, Sandra Joyce, Willzee, Bricknasty and more.

Pop singer-songwriter CMAT has announced that her second album Crazymad will be released on AWAL Recordings on 13 October. The artist, who won the 2022 RTÉ Choice Music Prize Album of the Year award for her debut If My Wife New I’d be Dead, has also shared a new song ‘Have Fun!’ along with an accompanying music video. The track is the second single from the album, following the previously released ‘Whatever’s Inconvenient’. 

Dublin alt-folk band Slow Moving Clouds have recently released their third album Kolmas. The record sees the band take a deeper look at dreamy textures and sounds in their work, with influences from Finnish and Irish traditions, post-punk and contemporary classical. A highlight of the album is the lead single ‘The Longest Lie’. The trio embarks on an album launch tour this month starting at Whelan’s in Dublin today (1 June) and visiting Carrick on Shannon, Doolin, Castlebar and Greystones throughout the month. 

Pianist and composer Daniel Luke has recently released his debut solo album Shadow Dance – a collection of works for piano with influences from contemporary, jazz and classical. Luke was a founding member of indie band Gypsies on the Autobahn who released two albums and toured across Ireland and Europe extensively during the 2010s, and he recently completed an album launch tour across Ireland. Previously released works from the album include ‘Chatterbox’ and ‘Silk’.

There is also a recent album from Limerick singer-songwriter Paddy Dennehy, Love and be Brave; a new collection of songs by young sean-nós singers from across the country, Bláth na hÓige (reviewed here); and Some Other Blues – the album by guitarist Louis Stewart and pianist Noel Kelehan that was originally recorded in 1977 but is being released for the first time now on Livia Records. 

Faoileán – the Irish-American folk band from New Jersey comprising Nathan Bishop (fiddle), Connor Brogan (octave mandolin, tenor banjo, and harmonium) and Rob Helsel (guitar) – have shared their new record Far Hills; and Tigh Choilm on the Cló Iar-Chonnacht label is a new record featuring three generations of the Ó Cualáin family with a collection of recordings from the 1950s to the present. 

Also recently released in traditional music is singer Sandra Joyce’s Since You and I Have Been; Síle Denvir’s sean-nós record Anamnesis produced with John Reynolds; and the first collection of music by female uilleann pipers, Mná na bPíob Uilleannfeaturing Emer Mayock, Rita Farrell, Muireann Ní Shé, Marion McCarthy, Meave O’Donnell and Pamela Schweblin. 

Armagh singer-songwriter Dani Larkin last month released the four-track EP Walking With Natives; composer Jamie Thompson’s Adjunct Ensemble has recently released Sovereign Bodies / Ritual Taxonomy on the Diatribe label (reviewed here); and RTÉ Lyric FM have launched the Leaving Cert Music Podcast. 

Limerick rapper Willzee shared new single ‘My Light’ featuring singer Tolü Makay; R&B band Bricknasty have announced they will release their debut EP Ina Crueler on 7 June via FAMM Records and have shared a single from the record ‘ducks in a row’; and composer and organist David Bremner recently released his record Mixed Circuits on Farpoint Recordings. 

Released next week (9 June) on Raelach Records is the new album by piano player and composer Geraldine Cotter, Ré Órga. The album also features Eamonn Cotter and Cillian Boyd on flutes, Neil Ó Lochlainn on double bass, and Oisín Boyd, Gráinne Cotter and Meadhbh Hendrie on fiddles, and will be launched with a concert at Glór in Ennis.

Listen to a playlist of all recent releases below. To submit your release, email newreleases [at] journalofmusic.com.

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Published on 1 June 2023

Shannon McNamee is Assistant Editor of the Journal of Music.

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