Nightnoise unofficial site

Tríona solo album remastered

Gael Linn have remastered and re-issued the 1975 “Tríona” album. Get it here

Thanks to Carme Alonso for the tip.

Nightnoise with Mimori Yusa video from Water Blue

YouTube video of “Even if it were a dream” from the Water Blue album by Mimori Yusa with Nightnoise as session musicians.

Unfortunately, no live footage, but definitely worth listening to!
Thanks once again to Luis García Marco.

Thistle and Shamrock tribute to Micheal O'Domhnaill on NPR

It’s an hour-long programme— here

Once again, thanks to Luis García Marco for the tip!

Puck Fair and Kokia

Brian Dunning’s band, Puck Fair, have teamed up with Japanese singer Kokia and are touring in June 2009.

More details (and music, of course) on their MySpace page

More information:
Kokia’s home page
Puck Fair on MySpace
Kokia on MySpace

Album in Japan

Kokia and Puck Fair recently released an album in Japan entitled “Fairy Dance – Kokia meets Ireland”. In it she covers such classics as “Siúl a Rún” and “Black is the Colour”.
Intrepid souls can get the CDs from Amazon Japan (mostly in Japanese, but there are links enabling you to see the essentials in English). It’s much easier than it used to be!
You can also listen to what appears to be the entire album at MySpace

Puck Fair videos on YouTube

Two videso of Puck Fair live in Japan

“Moondance”

Thanks to Luis García Marco for the tip!

Free Valentine's day song from Jeff Johnson

Here’s a message from Jeff Johnson (who has recorded a lot with Brian Dunning).

In 1976, I was 20 years old and my wife, Susie, was 18 when we were married at the First Baptist Church of Portland, Oregon. I wrote a song that I performed for her that day which eventually was featured on an early recording entitled, “The Face of the Deep.” Thirty-three years later, the old voice is a bit more mature and our love for one another is tested and deeper. I rerecorded this for Susie for her 50th birthday last June and would like to offer it to you for Valentine’s Day.

Blessings to you and yours,

Jeff Johnson
ArkMusic

The Princess & The Jester

Words & music by Jeff Johnson
©1982 Sola Scriptura Songs/Ark Records, Inc.
Performed & recorded live at The Ark, Camano Island, WA in June 2008.

Triona & Maighread in concert. Dublin, 31 Jan 2009

As part of the Temple Bar TradFest 2009, Tríona Ní Dhomnaill, her sister Maighread, Moya Brennan and Mairéad Ní Mhaonaigh will be in concert on 31 January at The Button Factory, Dublin.
More info

(Thank you, Carme!)

Irish Times article about Mícheál Ó'Domhnaill and the "Keep 'er Lit" album

An instinct for beauty

"Keep 'er Lit" - Mícheál Ó'Domhnaill compilation album

Gael Linn has just released “Keep ‘er Lit – The songs and music of Mícheál Ó‘Domhnaill”.

This special compilation comes with a 40-page booklet containing photos, tributes and the words of all the songs (in both Irish and English, as appropriate).

All the tracks have been released previously except for “Lord Franklin” by The Bothy Band.

Proceeds from the album go to The Irish Traditional Music Archive.

It is available for purchase (price EUR 20) at:

• Gael Linn
• Claddagh Records

Track listing:

1. Bánchnoic Éireann Ó (Skara Brae)
2. An Cailín Rua (Skara Brae)
3. Casadh an tSúgáin (The Bothy Band)
4. Fionnghuala (The Bothy Band)
5. Rip the Calico (The Bothy Band)
6. Calum Sgaire (The Bothy Band)
7. The Promenade (Kevin Burke and Mícheál Ó‘Domhnaill)
8. Lord Franklin (The Bothy Band)
9. Sweeney’s Buttermilk/The Ships are Sailing/Jenny’s Chickens (Paddy Glackin and Mícheál Ó‘Domhnaill)
10. ÚirChill an Chreagáin (Relativity)
11. Something of Time (Nightnoise)
12. The March Air (Nightnoise)
13. Brid Bhán (Mícheál Ó‘Domhnaill and Paddy Glackin)
14. An Cailín Gealach (Maighread Ní Dhomhnaill)
15. The Bonny Banks of Loch Lomond (Mícheál Ó‘Domhnaill and Paddy Glackin)

Fionnghuala video (live in Spain in 1990)

Thanks to YouTube use Astrowisk

Nightnoise video - The Cricket's Wicket

More videos

After such a long time with no Nightnoise video material, now we have another two, in a space of 24 hours. Thanks again to Luis García.

Time winds

Bridges (complete)

Two videos of Nightnoise live in Seville, Spain

At last, someone has posted two videos of Nightnoise live. They date from around 1990 and were recorded in Seville, Spain (and broadcast on Spain’s national TV channel, TVE).

Thanks to Luis Fernando García Marco for the info.

Ómós - A Gig for Mícheál

Excerpts from the concert held as a tribute to Mícheál Ó Domhnaill in May 2007 in Dublin have been aired on Irish radio (The Rolling Wave, presented by Peter Browne). The format is Real Audio: Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3

The concert is to be released as an album (no dates yet).

Note to Nightnoise fans: it is primarily a concert of traditional Irish music. Nightnoise never took off in Ireland and most people there associate Mícheál with the Bothy Band, above all.

Radio programme tribute to Mícheál Ó'Domhnaill

WNYC’s New Sound has re-aired a programme on Mícheál that was first broadcast in 2006.

Apart from tracks from The Bothy Band, Puck Fair and the Portland album he did with Kevin Burke, it contains that rarest of rare things: a recording of Nightnoise live in concert. It was recorded in 1989, when Billy Oskay was still in the group, and features a brief interview with the four followed by a set in which they play After Five, Nollaig, At The Races, Nightnoise, and The Cricket’s Wicket. The set starts about 26 minutes in and runs for about 18 minutes.

Considering you can get bootlegs of the likes of Bob Dylan going back to the 1960s, it’s hard to believe nobody ever snuck a tape recorder into a Nightnoise gig. Maybe Nightnoise fans are above that sort of thing. I do know that some radio stations have recordings (Spain’s national radio RNE 3 has a recording from a Valladolid concert dating from the Billy Oskay period – more on that later).

And Ireland’s national TV, RTE, has recordings of them when they moved back to Ireland, with fiddlers and even a cellist filing in the strings side of the equation (Johnny Cunningham had decided to stay in the US), but who knows if we’ll ever get to see that footage.

Meantime, check out the WNYC programme

Mícheál Ó'Domhnaill slideshow tribute

Thistle Radio have posted a lovely slideshow tribute to Mícheál Ó‘Domhnaill.

It consists of photos taken by Greg Duffy between 1981 and 1986; the soundtrack is Mícheál singing “Casadh an tSúgáin” (as recorded with the Bothy Band).

Those photos and many more can also be viewed at the Mícheál Ó‘Domhnaill official web site.

Thanks to Al Evers for the tip.

New Puck Fair album

Brian Dunning’s band Puck Fair has released a new album called “Forgotten Carnival”.

Review from Pitchfork Magazine:

Back with their first album in 19 years, Brian Dunning’s Puck Fair makes a comeback with “Forgotten Carnival.” The band is acoustic and the music is inspired equally by the driving rhythms of Celtic music with the freedom and spontaneity of jazz. Founded in New York in 1984 and reformed in Dublin, Puck Fair mainly plays original music by Brian Dunning as well as music by such artists as Van Morrison and John Coltrane.
Dunning has a breathtaking command of the flute, coupled with a most personal approach to jazz improvisation and traditional music. He returns here to the repertoire of one of his most successful projects, bringing him together with the versatile guitar of Sean Whelan, the infectious grooves of percussionist Robbie Harris, and two very special guests from Slovakia, violinist Stano Paluch and cellist Joef Luptak, for an evening of cross cultural tradition and innovation. The haunting, melodic atmospheres of this group are long overdue for discovery by fans of Enya and Clannad.

It’s available for purchase and download at the following:

MP3 format (no DRM)

• 
  EMusic (best option)
  
• Rhapsody
• Amazon.com
• Napster

Or if you prefer DRM :

• iTunes Music Store
• Zune

You can listen to most of their first album “Fair Play” (a classic now out of print), on their MySpace page

Thanks to LFGM and A-Train for the links.

Catalan singer Lidia Pujol

This album features Lidia Pujol, a very interesting Catalan singer whose background ranges from rock to opera. She has been working with Puck Fair for some years now, having appeared with them in concert in Dublin in 2006.

Skara Brae videos on YouTube

Five segments of video on YouTube. They feature Skara Brae, the group founded by the O’Domhnaill siblings with Daithi Sproule long before Nightnoise.
This seems to be the TG4 programme of the Skara Brae reunion concert a few years ago.

Thanks to Luis Fernando García for the tip.

Ridiculous pricing

I have set up a Google alert on Nightnoise. It sends me an e-mail every time it finds a new page that refers to Nightnoise. The finds are generally pirate MP3 download sites, where you can get an entire album for less than a dollar.

That is in stark contrast to the 99 cents per track charged by the iTunes Music Store (which only has “At the End of the Evening”, “Shadow of Time”, “Something of Time” and “Nightnoise Pure” for sale), and 89 cents at Amazon’s MP3 Downloads store (which has no Nightnoise music at all only 2 albums: “Something of Time” and “Shadow of Time”, plus 2 albums by the Japanese electronic band called Nightnoise).

But it gets worse. Today Google sent me a new alert, and the link takes me to Amazon’s physical record store where they have 6 used copies of “Nightnoise” by Billy Oskay and Mícheál Ó‘Domhnaill, an album that has been out of print for well over 10 years. The prices range from $47.79 to $95.00.

There is absolutely no reason why this album shouldn’t be available as MP3 from a legitimate online music store, at a reasonable price. And Nightnoise fans ought to be able to lay their hands on this album from a legitimate source, while creating revenue for the artists.

Who wins in this situation? Scummy pirate download sites.
Who loses? The artists, their heirs, and the record companies themselves.

Conclusion: idiocy on the part of Windham Hill. (If anyone has a better explanation, I’ll be delighted to publish it).

"They were the most elegant group, inspiring to us."

Harp guitarist John Doan, flute duo Meadowlark (Rick Cyge and Lynn Trombetta) and violinist Allen Ames are playing a winter solstice concert at the Scottsdale Center for the Performing Arts in Scottsdale, Arizona, on 21 December 2007.

Lynn Trombetta (quoted above in the title) acknowledges their debt to Nightnoise, and the concert is dedicated to our favourite group.

News features about the gig: here and here