Breda Mayock – Waves
Ger Records – 28 June 2021
There has to be something in the water and air of the West of Ireland’s County Mayo that has enabled it to have produced such eminent musicians as Pecker Dunne, Gráinne Hambly, Matt Molloy, Seán Smyth and Mary Staunton, to name but a handful. Breda Mayock is certainly not out of place being mentioned in their company.
Waves, her latest EP, a collection of four songs that originated during the lockdown of 2020, confirms her place as one of the country’s most alluring and interesting artists.
From a family of musicians and artists, her background is in traditional and folk music, one creative thread in her busy life which runs in tandem with her talent in the visual arts field; a veteran of many exhibitions, the latest of which Crown – Hair & Identity in Traveller Culture showcases her interest in Mincéirí.
When the first lockdown was announced on 12th March, Breda, like many, was confined to home, where she took the opportunity to start to write, something she had not done for a long time. The process appeared to have been a somewhat cathartic one, and as she explains, “Words and music spill out around the changing pace of the days, walking, home schooling, slowing, waiting, observing the story from a different field. The songs emerged from scaling hedges.“
Then, in October 2020, Breda was one of four people selected for Navigating a Future, a Mayo County Council Public Art Commission supporting artists to create artwork in response to the ongoing impact of Covid-19. This provided the opportunity to research and create new work and learn new ways of making and recording songs. This EP is the tangible musical offering afforded by this opportunity, with the promise of visual elements appearing in the near future.
As Neil McFadyen wrote in his Folk Radio review of her excellent 2017 release, Learning Place, here, Breda is indeed a “writer of songs that radiate a soft but breathtaking beauty”.
This assertion remains apposite, but to these ears, her music has also moved on with this release. The myriad of genre influences that have informed her music over the years are still to be detected, but more abstract, multi-layered soundscapes infuse what is on offer here.
Working once more with Steve Cooney, guitars & bass, Robbie Harris, drums & percussion, veterans of previous releases from Breda, who contributes vocals and keyboards, Waves was recorded in Mayo and Donegal and mixed in Dublin by Mark Murphy at Secrets And Machines.
The music on the EP explores questions and themes that have arisen from Covid-19 and our lives now, and, as with her previous full length-release, all of the songs are sung in English. From the first few delicate bars of the opener, Watchtower Breda’s inviting vocals will envelop you in an ethereal warmth that you will not want to shake off. Gentle, tumbling guitar notes and sympathetic percussion complement the multi-tracked vocals perfectly. An all-too-brief 4 minutes and 22 seconds before once, again, the beguiling vocals on So Long weave and soar before giving way to Steve’s guitar, only to return once more, leaving one of those indelible ‘earworms’, which, and this is meant as a compliment, is, at times, reminiscent of Leonard Cohen.
Opening with more absorbing guitar, the gossamer-like sonic palette continues with Trade Winds, an Americana-tinged offering truly on a par with Emmy-Lou or Lucinda, before this delightful set ends with Great Coat, another wonderfully textured song, hypnotising in the extreme, Breda hitting high notes that will send shivers down the spine.
Waves is a memorable EP, graceful, elegant, and, above all, a tremendously impressive listen; the only regret is that it is “a small package from a long year” rather than a full-length release.
The EP is available now on digital platforms.
Order Waves via Bandcamp: https://bredamayock.bandcamp.com/album/waves