Fiddle Music

Danny Diamond's self-released Fiddle Music is an assured solo debut for the Dublin-born fiddler, who is a field recording officer for the Irish Traditional Music Archive. Influenced by family traditions rooted in the spare, sinewy fiddle dialect of Donegal, Diamond also stretches further north with dark-hued Scandinavian atmospheres and reaches westwards with the brighter directness of American folk music. Together with unabashed nods towards Dublin icons Seán Keane and Tommy Potts and West Clare legend Joe Ryan, Diamond deftly blends a decidedly esoteric array of influences and interests with fiddle playing of yearning eloquence, biting verve and wit aplenty.

Inking in Diamond's singular signature are drone-based accompaniments from his own open-tuned fiddle, the uilleann pipes of Ian Lynch, the nyckelharpa of his regular playing partner Aki, and Eoin Ó Beaglaoich on accordion. The effect atmospherically frames Diamond's mature and incisive interrogations of a set drawn from new and traditional material. Elsewhere, characterful duets with Ó Beaglaoich on concertina, Dermy Diamond on fiddle and sean nós performer Anna Lethert contribute to one of the most charismatic and compelling Irish discs of the year.