No Fixed Abode

Not to be confused with the long defunct New Orleans hip-hop outfit, TRÚ take their name from a mythological trio of poet-musicians in ancient Ulster, gatekeepers to an Otherworld accessed through song. No Fixed Abode, their debut outing on disc pitches the all-singing three-piece – Dónal Kearney (flute, whistle), Michael Mormecha (percussion) and Zachary Trouton (guitar) – as modern-day strolling troubadours whose folklore-laced material is drawn from sources close to their native Northern Irish soil and as far afield as the realm of vengeful Japanese spirits. Established soloists in their own rights, they blend seamlessly together to produce one of the most interesting new ensembles to have emerged from the Six Counties in recent years.

Although solidly rooted in tradition, they're not beholden to the past, clothing it in pared back, wholly contemporary garb that calls to mind the likes of Lankum, Sam Lee and Ye Vagabonds. Atmosphere is all here in the shimmering, chant-like stillness of ‘Newry Boat Song’, a spryly lean and lithe take on ‘Dúlamán’, the hushed intimacy of ‘Ay Waukin O’ and the tangy Aboriginal twist of ‘Gaol Ise Gaol í’. Instrumental contributions are as clever and precise as they are evocative and spare. But it's the blending of voices in luxurious harmonies that catches the ear, not least in a gorgeously yearning cover of Tommy Sands' ‘County Down’.