This is The Haar’s debut album – released in June 2020.
It is reminiscent of the haar, a sea mist that rolls in from the east and west of the Irish and North Seas: fleeting, intabigle, headily thick, suddenly overwhelming and then unexpectedly clearing for a glimpse of precious sunlight. The band makes no plans, just lets the music create itself; the tracks on the album are the first and only versions, as unpredictable and ephemeral as the haar itself.
The band has its origins in a chance meeting between Adam Summerhayes (fiddler), Cormac Byrne (bodhrán) and traditional Irish singer Molly Donnery at a trad session at Craiceann Bodhrán Festival, Inis Oírr, resulting in an improvised live performance recorded by the shipwreck of the Plassey on the wild Atlantic seafront. It was to become typical of the unique ‘live reactive compositon’ that characterises their music.
With the addition of master accordionist Murray Grainger, they entered the studiowith no plans or arrangements, guided only by the live musical landscapes
they created – the music was recorded as it flowed, in the first and
only take.
Three masterful instrumentalists provide an improvised space from which Molly’s pure and unadulterated vocals can emerge.
The idea was to record Irish traditional songs tackling love, poverty and oppression – subjects that link the peoples of these islands. When they reach the studio, and their first notes ring out as a quartet, the music flows.
This is music that is not afraid to transcend borders – whilst recognisably
born of the tradi1onal musics that all members of the band have grown up
with and absorbed, it is unapologe1c in pushing at the edges in order to
create the band’s own unique and compelling sound.
credits
released June 5, 2020
Molly Donnery: vocals;
Cormac Byrne: bodhrán and percussion;
Murray Grainger: accordion;
Adam Summerhayes: fiddle.
All songs and lyrics traditional, except *verse 10 lyrics (Adam Summerhayes) and **lyrics (Joseph Campbell).
Produced and mixed by Murray Grainger, Adam Summerhayes and Cormac Byrne.
Engineered by Murray Grainger. Mastered by Jon Astley