An Bhuatais & the Meaning of Life

Lorcán MacMathúna's book-and-CD package, An Bhuatais & the Meaning of Life, is, as its title implies, ambitious – an attempt to explore the abiding relevance of Ireland's folklore and traditional music, its sean nós singing style in particular, in a country much altered by modernity and now less securely connected to its mythic past and heritage. The handsomely produced 120-page hardback book includes short essays by MacMathúna marked by widely-read philosophical interests from the Bible and ancient Greek playwrights to Nietzsche and Solzhenitsyn, with myriad esoteric diversions in between.

The 14-track CD serves up a contemplative collection of songs of sean nos, their sources as eclectic as the companion book, touching on themes of hope, longing, sacrifice and love. Filtered through MacMathúna's crafted phrasing, carefully graded tonal colours and soft, crooning, salt-and-pepper vocals, the result is as insightful as it is immersive. Often exquisitely beautiful, too, as in the ancient lullaby ‘Cúcúín’ and movingly plaintive ‘The Dead Kings’, setting a text by the World War I poet Francis Ledwidge that chimes with Gaelic folk poetry and the ‘vision poem’ form, aisling. The various sympathetic contributions of Daire Bracken, Éamonn Galdubh and Martin Tourish – cosseting fiddle, the keening drone of uilleann pipes, airily sympathetic whistle and saxophone against intermittent electronic ambient washes – evocatively frame MacMathúna's masterclass investigation of text and tune.