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REVIEW FROM www.livingtradition.co.uk

 


 

 

 
WEST OCEAN STRING QUARTET - Atlantic Edge 

WEST OCEAN STRING QUARTET - Atlantic Edge 
Private Label WORCD104  

Four excellent and experienced musicians pulled together by a shared love of Irish music and a shared classical background, this quartet celebrates its 21st birthday and its fifth album with Atlantic Edge. Like many of us, with maturity comes more regard for tradition, so this is the most traditional recording by the group so far. I recognise the names Séamus McGuire (fiddle) and Neil Martin (cello) from many Irish and Scottish recordings, but Niamh Crowley (fiddle) and Kenneth Rice (viola) have built their considerable reputations in the classical genre so I had to google them.

In many ways this recording is what you'd expect from a classical-trad cross-over: carefully crafted and arranged, technically polished, with many of the usual suspects. Starting with the song air Inion a'Bhaoilligh, the material here includes March Of The Mín An Tóiteáin Bull, Port Na bPucaí, Alisdrum's March, Slán Le Máigh, Tobar Geal and Aisling Gheal - beautiful if well-known slow pieces. There are some surprises too - a great version of Paddy Fahey's Jig, the lovely Mrs Crotty's Walls Of Liscarroll from the playing of that West Clare concertina icon, and a set of session reels which are almost swept away by the martial notes of Martin's cello. The only new composition here is The Boy In The Glen, an evocative air written by Neil Martin for the recently departed master piper Liam Óg O'Flynn. Atlantic Edge is a fine example of sympathetic arrangements of traditional Irish music, easy on the ear but lively enough to hold the attention.

www.westoceanstringquartet.com

Alex Monaghan

 

This review appeared in Issue 135 of The Living Tradition magazine