Alan Reid & Rachel Conlan - A Quare Yield review: slow and steady

Here is a collection that yields its pleasures with a certain reluctance until it marries its crafted sleeve notes with its eclectic tune choices. Leitrim banjo (and occasional oud) player Alan Reid and fiddle player (Irish and hardanger) Rachel Conlan plant their musical feet firmly on the ground, favouring a steady pacing over any hint of a gallop.

Their inventive marriage of tunes (such as Tommy Potts' hop jig with Elizabeth Cronin's Cucanandy and the deliciously "crooked setting" of Tommy Reck's Top It Off) casts many of them in a new light, though at times their loyalty to the metronome dilutes the inherent dynamism of a tune.

Reid and Conlan's attention to detail suggests a duo who savour the subtleties of a well-made tune over the adrenalin rush of a breakneck-paced set. facebook.com/alanreidandrachelconlan