Siobhán Longfinds Stéphaine Makem and Tiernan Ó Duinnchinn's album to have a durable quality.

STÉPHANIE MAKEM & TIARNÁN Ó DUINNCHINN

Ceol Is Píob

Claddagh

***

Pipes and voice make a surprisingly compatible pairing on this delicate collection, where silence and space are as crucial as the notes themselves.

With the riches of the Makem clan at her disposal, Stéphanie Makem digs deep beneath the surface of a song in search of its core. Airdí Cuainillustrates her singer's instinct for a good story, her phrasing seamlessly melding with Paul Meehan's spacious guitar accompaniment.

Tiarnán Ó Duinnchinn's pipes make an almost architectural sound, and the deliciously baroque Handel's Gigue for Keyboard in G cosies up effortlessly alongside the haughty An Slipéar Airgid. There's a certain ping-pong effect of interspersing songs and pipe tunes that could benefit from a relaxing of their boundaries, but this is a collection for which the notion of "the fullness of time" was coined.

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SIOBHÁN LONG

Download track: The Silver Slipper