Foxlight
Space age thrills from ethereal folkie.
Jackie Hayden, 28 Oct 2011
This is Iarla Ó Lionáird’s third solo album. It is a truly haunting record, as Ó Lionáird’s extraordinary voice is juxtaposed with a broad palette of sonic textures.
Opener ‘The Heart Of The World’ has seductive Eastern overtones while there’s an ethereal quality to Norwegian singer Sara Marielle Gaup’s wordless keening vocal on the evocative ‘Daybreak’. A meditative stillness infuses ‘Seven Suns’, ‘Eleanor Plunkett’ and ‘Fáinne Geal An Lae’. Elsewhere, Ó Lionáird eases for the more lightly ornamented ‘The Goat Song’, which adheres closely to the Irish vocal tradition. The title track is one of the album’s most compelling, featuring delicious strings and spare percussion. Meanwhile ‘Hand In Hand’ heads towards planet Enya with added natural strings. And time almost stands still through the wonderful ‘Stay’.
Built around Ó Lionáird’s stirring voice and the musical artistry of Leo Abrahams, Foxlight also features the magical skills of Simon Edwards, Graham Henderson and Neil McColl. It would be sacrilege to treat this as mere chill-out music as some have suggested. Foxlight takes listeners to distant musical planets from which they may not wish to return.
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