MAC CON IOMAIRE,COLM - And Now The Weather - Agus Anois An Aimsir (Sealed) (CD)

Almost twenty years ago Colm Mac Con Iomaire was struggling to describe his early attempts at composition and made a distinction between 'tunes' and 'music'. The creative tension between these two notions produced a player, composer and film score arranger who seems always to have been aware and inspired by the dualities in his musical and cultural world. After playing fiddle with the wildly popular The Frames, whose live gigs were and are the stuff of fan lore legend, Colm's work in film and theatre has allowed him to progress and mature as an orchestrator of his own compositions. With his new work his chosen title And Now the Weather/Anois an Aimsir refers to the introduction to the final item on radio and tv news bulletins. The weather report is viewed as a means of keeping the distress of reality at bay. It is a title riven with irony. And Now The Weather marks a return to collaboration. From the impressive solo run that was The Hare's Corner, the multitasking on stringed instruments, the immaculate production, this new album features orchestral levels of players and instruments. In addition to his own fluent playing on almost the entire family of stringed instruments from fiddle and viola through guitar bouzouki and zither a further 21 players of pianos, brass, percussion, strings, harp and vocals feature. His default voices are fiddle and viola and his orchestrations are structured around the expansive range of tones and accents he has become capable of achieving on these instruments. He is a musical colourist of subtle tones and nuances, a master of mood and atmosphere. He is superbly served in his choice of musicians here. Sensitive and intuitive, they are with him for the full journey this music takes from gaiety to menace from chaos to peace from motion to stillness.