Aonair

David Munnelly is a button accordion player whose musical roots in Irish music stretch far, to French, Gypsy, swing and beyond. He is a member of the five-piece pan-European squeezebox band Accordion Samurai, and he works in both a trio and a duo. Aonair, though, is the Irish word for solitary and this is an (almost) entirely solo album of his own compositions.

From the opening track, ‘Knowing’, Munnelly coaxes intricate, rhythmic bass sounds as well as dazzling melodies. He incorporates the clack of buttons and the breathy wheeze of the bellows. ‘Lily’, written in honour of his first niece, is a tender, hopeful tune. ‘Corazon’ incorporates series of fast repeated notes and ‘Déjà Vu’ involves an echoing vibrato. The evening he received a bespoke new accordion with extra bass buttons, from makers Castagnari, Munnelly wrote the title tune. It is a key to understanding his art; ‘Aonair’ is less a tune played on the instrument than an exploration of it. Munnelly, playing alone, is considering his relationship with it. Soon comes ‘Sos’, Irish for ‘pause’, and this tune is just that, a break the busyness of his compositions with a calm, contemplative piece.

The one collaboration is with Malgosia Fiebig on ‘Someone’. This began as a tune for someone, but turned into one for somewhere – Utrecht – Munnelly's home for many years. This atmospheric and affectionate piece begins and ends with the sounds of the town and its flight of bells, played by Fiebig, who is the city carillonneur of Utrecht and Nijmegen.