Whilst Galway vocalist/artist Ceara Conway has a respect for tradition, this hasn’t stopped her from broadening her horizons in her cross-cultural approach to music. Alongside Irish traditional sean-nós, she has also explored other traditional music in Portuguese, Arabic, as well as African song and Georgian Chant. Today marks the release of her new album CAOIN, and 50% of all album sales will be donated to Voices of Children Ukraine and to a Ukrainian Community who have just arrived in Kinvara, Co. Clare.
The new album focuses on sean-nós songs that explore the beautiful sounds and sentiments of longing and loss found in traditional praise songs, lullabies with a core emphasis on the traditional Irish ‘caoineadh’ lament. The album was produced by Seán Mac Erlaine, whose adventurous musical endeavours are equally compelling. It features a top cast of musicians, including Kevin Murphy (Cello), Ultan O’Brien (Viola/Fiddle) of Slow Moving Clouds, Seán Mac Erlaine (clarinet, electronics) and Francesco Turrisi (piano).
Last month, filmmaker Myles O’Reilly made the accompanying video for An Caoineadh:
Talking about the album, Ceara says:
“As a vocal artist, I have been composing, performing, and using songs as a way in which to connect with audiences on issues that we experience individually and collectively, for example, exploring the sense of loss we experience in relation to experiences of death, migration, feminist issues, and the environmental crisis.
The collection of nine sean-nós songs within CAOIN are songs that I have performed over the years both on stage and in my commissioned works. From Amhrán Muighnse, the first sean-nós song that I learnt and still love to this day, to ‘’Caoineadh’, a lament that I appropriated as part of a series of public lamentations called ‘Making Visible’ that commented upon the grief experienced by women living in the Direct Provision System. I included the lullaby Seóthin Seothó, because when I sing it, I experience it as a song full of warmth and melancholic longing. Further research into the song led me to learn that in the famine times people would sing lullabies that warned of faeries stealing their children away, sadly the faeries were a symbol, a motif, for death and dying.
Pé’n Éirinn í and an tSailchuach are in this collection because I am enamoured by the stories they tell and their beautiful melodic ornamented lines. I love that an tSailchuach is a praise song and often find myself contemplating the rarity and loss of such cultural and social values in our current times. That we would deem a local craftsperson and their craft so highly that we would compose a song to celebrate and sing about them.”
The inspiration that inspired the framework for CAOIN was based on Ceara’s experience of singing these songs and sensing a connection between them in terms of their potent emotional expression.
“From the outset I wanted to bring a new sound to these traditional songs and to reinterpret them in a new way. This approach is an integral part of my practice as a contemporary artist and singer, I am drawn to creating work that both draws upon and tests the boundaries of tradition. It was really important for me to have musicians whose music I really admire play on the album, musicians who have an experimental and progressive approach.”
CAOIN is an album sung entirely in the Irish language. “Initially I was concerned about the prospect of such an album only having a niche audience, but I’ve since reflected that as a multilingual singer (who loves singing and listening to songs in a multitude of languages) . I have absolute confidence In a song’s capacity to move and affect regardless of whether one can understand the words. The power of a song can exist entirely in the tone, the mood, melody and within the embodied vocal & life history of the person singing.”
Ceara explains that this collection of sean-nós songs mostly deal with themes of loss and longing. “I’ve experienced a great deal of loss throughout my life, including the death of my father. Before the time when I realised I could sing (12 years ago) expressing grief and deep longing was quite a private experience for me. But singing has changed that. It’s a beautiful thing to connect with people through the medium of songs and music. It’s my version of holy.”
CAOIN is out on digital format, CD, and vinyl, now – https://cearaconway.bandcamp.com/ – with 50% of all album sales bring donated to Voices of Children Ukraine and to a Ukrainian Community who have just arrived in Kinvara, Co Clare.
The World Premiere live performance of CAOIN by Ceara Conway: A Glór Commission, will take place at Glór Theatre, Ennis, Co.Clare, Friday 8th April 2022. For details & tickets, visit: https://glor.ie/events/world-premiere-of-caoin-by-ceara-conway-a-glor-commission/