REVIEW FROM www.livingtradition.co.uk

The Brendan Voyage
Shaun Davey with soloist Liam O'Flynn
Tara CD 3006

The Brendan Voyage Suite was, and still is, considered a groundbreaking crossover work of great significance in Irish music. In the years since the album's initial release in the 1980s this recording has achieved almost legendary status.

The Brendan Voyage tells the story in music of the explorer Tim Severin's voyage across the Atlantic in a replica leather boat, the boat being represented by the uilleann pipes, in order to prove that Saint Brendan (a sixth century Irish saint) could have reached America before Columbus or the Norsemen.

The presence of Liam O'Flynn will attract the enthusiast of the pipes; however, this recording is exactly what it says on the cover, a suite for orchestra and uilleann pipes. Lovely as the music is it is not traditional folk music.

I suspect that the fame of this album together with the length of time since its first release will mean that everyone that wanted this work will already own it. If you are lucky enough to be coming to The Brendan Voyage for the first time, having read the label, you are in for a treat.

A welcomed re-release.

Danny Saunders