reviews
July 2008 - Irish Music Magazine
Rod Stradling - 12.6.08 – www.mustrad.org.uk
Blimey! This is just stunning! (sound clip - track 1) And, for once, the publicity blurb doesn't exaggerate:
Ciar‡n î Maonaigh and Aidan O'Donnell are two young fiddle players who hail from opposite ends of that most musical of counties, Donegal. Ciaran is from the Gaoth Dobhair gaeltacht in north Donegal while Aidan hails from Dunkineely in the south of the county. They are are rapidly forging a reputation for exhilarating and challenging music that draws on the rich heritage of their native place. Their music making is marked by an intricate and intelligent approach that still manages to maintain the element of fiery exhuberance that is the hallmark of traditional fiddle music from Donegal. This is traditional music for the 21st century - mindful of its origins but breathtakingly exciting in its ambition and delivery.
Every word is true, and the music fairly crackles with energy. So much so that I'm loth to make my usual complaint about the tempi of the playing - and, to be fair, the barndances and highlands are taken at a fairly restrained pace. Best of all, there's not a guitar or bodhr‡n in sight - just two fiddles, very well played!
And it's not just the playing which pleases this particular listener - there's a fine selection of lovely tunes to be heard here: jigs, barndances, highlands, hornpipes, a slow air, a set piece, even a mazurca; and only six of the tracks include reels!
It was also nice to find a crossover of tunes ... I don't play all that many Irish tunes, so I was surprised to find two titles here that I play myself. As it happens, their All the Way to Galway isn't the same as the All the Ways to Galway that I play, but we do both have the same Con Cassidy's Jig! (sound clip)
The booklet notes are brief but informative, telling not only from whom the tunes were learned but also where they originated ... and the tradition is still so alive in Donegal that these young musicians have actually played with some of their sources. Not, as too often is the case these days "Children learning from children" - to quote a good friend of mine.
If you enjoy the fiery Donegal fiddle styles of the Dohertys, the î Beirns and the Cassidys, you'll love this - if you enjoy great fiddle playing of any sort, you'll love this - if you enjoy Irish music at all, you'll love this. Distributed by Claddagh and available from all good record stores - do yourself a favour!
March 14th 2008 - Siobhan Long
Ciarán Ó Maonaigh and Aidan O’Donnell & Maighread and Tríona Ní Dhomhnaill at the Project, Dublin.
From their opening exhortation to the audience to treat the black box of the Project as if it were "just a big kitchen", the duelling fiddlers, Aidan O'Donnell and Ciarán Ó Maonaigh, hit the ground running. Although their repertoire could never deny their Donegal provenance, they're no hostages to fortune, opting instead for bold interpretations of classic tunes borrowed from the likes of John Doherty, Francie Mooney and Vincent Campbell.
They relished the cross-fertilisation of German barn dances with native companion pieces, such as Francie Mooney's bequest, If There Weren't Any Women in the World. Far from the lament that its title might suggest, O'Donnell and Ó Maonaigh jousted with the skeleton of the tune, merging and diverging from the basic melody line, and delighting in the rhythmic bow-play it encouraged them to explore.
Keenly attuned to the night's headliners, a pair of singers who between them (and their late brother, Micheál) have come to embody the quintessence of Donegal song, Ó Maonaigh tackled the Donegal song, Mo Shean Dún na nGall, with the ear of a musician who knows that, to truly inhabit it, he had to understand its every syllable and nuance. O'Donnell's delicate bowing and intricate finger work glistened, an unexpected discovery in a night packed with superb musicianship. He is a first-rate musician in the making, with a dry wit that merely embellishes his tunes further...
Reviews of Ciarán O’Maonaigh 1 click here
Reviews of Ciarán O’Maonaigh 2 click here
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