TRÚ – No Fixed Abode
Independent – 28 May 2021
You can’t always judge a book by its cover, but you can sometimes learn some interesting things about an album from its artwork. The picture that adorns the front of No Fixed Abode, the debut album by Ulster trio TRÚ, is a Japanese woodblock by ukiyo-e master Utagawa Kunisada. It depicts a male actor portraying a female figure dressed as a monk. This visual double bluff points to the layers of ambiguity to be found in this highly accomplished album, but more importantly, it speaks of the cultural and musical crossovers and switchbacks that by the end of the record have become one of the band’s hallmarks.
The clearest example comes on The Woodsman, a sweet, acoustic original with a dark heart that takes inspiration from the Yuki-onna (‘snow women’), vengeful Japanese spirits that wreak havoc on the lives of men that have wronged them. The song’s delicacy makes for a convincing portrayal of the Japanese winter. Such cultural cross-pollination is a novel and enticing way in which to enrich Ireland’s already vibrant musical heritage, and it shows the confidence of these young musicians.
A close examination of Japanese culture might not be what you’d necessarily expect from a Northern Irish folk band, but then again TRÚ are no ordinary folk band, and No Fixed Abode no ordinary album. For a start, there is the long gestation period: recording took place between 2017 and 2020, and it shows in the amount of care that has obviously gone into these songs. Then there are the very distinctive musical identities of the three musicians. Multi-instrumentalist, arranger and producer Michael Mormecha brought the three together, and his sonic backdrops create the space in which these varied songs thrive. He had previously collaborated with guitarist and singer Zach Trouton and introduced him to Dónal Kearney, a folk singer brought up in the Irish language tradition who has a day job as a composer of music for computer games (his impressive CV in this field includes work on the scores of World Of Warcraft and Nintendo’s hit role-player Xenoblade Chronicles).
Perhaps it is Kearney’s affinity with the fantastical worlds of video games that gives the trio the hint of magic that their music is undoubtedly dusted with. Or perhaps it is something else: after all, they are named after a band of mythological musicians whose songs were said to come from the future. Either way, TRÚ’s songs seem to inhabit worlds that run parallel to our own. A case in point is Jenny Black’s Hill, Kearney’s song about a famed witch said to inhabit the town of Warrenpoint. Rather than taking a purely historical or social perspective, Kearney shows us Jenny’s own point of view and does so in beautifully dramatic, impressionistic language, while a brooding guitar provides an atmospheric setting. Kearney’s own songs have little time for traditional song structures, which means that choruses have more scope to accumulate power and verses can flit in and out freely.
Another magical world is conjured up in Ar a Dhul Go Báile Átha Cliath Domh (On My Way To Dublin), one of a clutch of Irish-language songs. It tells the story – which, unusually for a folk song, has a happy ending – of a shape-shifting fairy’s attempts to waylay a man whose wife is ill. The tension is supplied by stabs of electric guitar that provide a counterpoint to the song’s reserved pace. The bilingual Newry Boat Song – the album’s opener – is more mournful, a heartbreaking lament for a lost lover. The percussion swells and wrenches, anchored by melancholic guitar and flute, while the vocal harmonies are shot through with a quiet wildness. It is followed by another Gaelic song of the sea, the rousing Dúlamán, full of kinetic energy and percussive insistence.
They also dip into the Scottish tradition on Gaol Ise, Gaol Í, a nonsense song invented by weaving women to keep rhythm while making tweed. In TRÚ’s hands, it becomes a showcase for exceptional harmony singing which is foregrounded by a taut, minimal arrangement.
The English language traditional material is equally impressive. The Blacksmith is a tightly-wound take on an old favourite. Bonny Portmore, in which a favourite Irish oak is felled and its wood sold to the English, adopts an elegiac and slightly dusty tone though its shimmering guitar might have been inspired by shoegaze pioneers Galaxie 500. Lyrically, it is a great example of the ambiguities and multiple meanings that evidently inspire the group: these days the song could be seen as an ecological protest, but equally, it could be a metaphor for the continued differences between Ireland and England.
A more obvious political statement comes in the form of Rebel Song, the band’s update of The Merry Month Of May (which in turn was used by Dominic Behan in The Patriot Game, then Bob Dylan in With God On Our Side). TRÚ’s version takes a little from both Dylan and Behan and adds a sweetly melodic chorus. It is a timely reminder that the politics of Northern Ireland are still more complex than certain news outlets might have you believe.
The band’s home country is celebrated in all its beauty in the wistful, slowly building County Down, a nostalgic paean to rootlessness and a homesick lament rolled into one. It was written by Tommy Sands of the legendary Northern Irish folk group the Sands Family and has a typically bittersweet feel, the deftness of its meandering melody and the sincerity of the singing keeping it just the right side of sentimentality. The new song The Ballad Of Ellie Hanley/An Cailín Bán is compelling evidence that TRÚ are natural successors to bands like the Sands Family.
The album’s finale provides one of its most magical moments. Ay Waukin O is an old song rewritten and popularised by Robert Burns. TRÚ’s stunning a cappella version stimulates and lulls in equal measure, its dreamlike harmonies falling on the ear with an almost preternatural assurance. It is this kind of assurance, presumably honed over the last four years of recording and preparation, that makes No Fixed Abode such a remarkable debut: while it has all the energy befitting a first offering, it bears the stamp of quality usually reserved for seasoned artists.
Pre-Order No Fixed Abode: https://truband3.bandcamp.com/album/no-fixed-abode-2
You can also listen to TRUcast by the trio on Spotify: