Video Premiere: Antoni O’Breskey & Ultan O’Brien perform ‘Punta Umbria’ (from their forthcoming new album)

Both Antoni O’Breskey and Ultan O’Brien have been featured previously on Folk Radio. As well as being a member of Slow Moving Clouds, Skipper’s Alley and John Francis Flynn‘s band. Ultan made a big impression with the album Solas an Lae (2020), on which Ultan’s fiddle playing proved to be the perfect partner to Eoghan Ó Ceannabháin‘s rich sean nos tenor.

Composer and pianist Antoni O’Breskey made a similarly unforgettable impression after hearing him and his daughter Consuelo Nerea Breschi (of Varo) perform ‘The Wee Weaver‘, on which Ultan also accompanied them. Antoni is a delight to watch, and fellow musicians seem to relish collaborating with him. Born in Italy with Argentine roots, his background is classical and Jazz. He introduced improvised-style piano into Irish and Flamenco music during the early 80s, blending it with blues and creating a positively new and original jazz piano style.

It’s musicians like these that are at the forefront of reshaping the sound world of Irish music, so the news of a new album (set for release in 2024) is certainly one I’m excited about.

The collaboration between Antoni O’Breskey and Ultan O’Brien began in 2020. During the lockdown, they were invited to perform at Maynooth University for a live streaming, and in 2021 First Music Contact commissioned Antoni O’Breskey & Ultan O’Brien to record a new album.

The album has been recorded by Cian Hamilton at Hellfire Studios and by John ‘Spud’ Murphy at Guerrilla Sounds and is now being mastered. Guests in the album are Tom Mulrooney on bass and Sam Comerford on saxophone.

The duo recently performed at the beautiful Glucksman Gallery in Cork as part of the FUAIM concert series in December, and they are now planning a tour for next Autumn. On their live performances, they are joined by Antoni’s daughter Consuelo Nerea whom I mentioned above.

The essence of Antoni & Ultan’s music is rarefied yet profoundly earthy and fluid. In their upcoming album, they have fused seemingly irreconcilable elements, such as traditional Irish melodies, the ostinato piano of the classical tradition, the whispers and screams of the Jazz saxophone, and the echoes of the Hammond organ. This is often permeated by electronic sounds and digital reworkings of acoustic sounds.

Below, you can watch them performing ‘Punta Umbria’, their first live video, which also backs everything said above.

In the creation process of their new project, Antoni & Ultan decided to start with something that belonged to the past and had no connection with the music of the new album. ‘Punta Umbria’ was composed by Antoni O’Breskey in 1986 and first appeared on his Punta Umbria EP, released on Grabaciones Accidentales.

The piece was written after a trip Antoni took with his partner Mia Fröelicher to Andalusia in a little town called Punta Umbria, just before their daughter Consuelo Nerea was born, and is dedicated to her. Tied to such strong memories, it’s maybe no surprise that Antoni has performed many different versions with flamenco, Irish and classical musicians, including the Irish flute player Johnny McCarthy – In the album ‘Al Kamar’ 1989 with classical cellist and composer Davide Viterbo – In the album ‘The Whale’s Lament and the Dolphin Waltz’ 2012, and with classical oboist Enio Marfoli – In the album ‘Boletus Edulis’ 2013.

Antoni says tells us:

“This piece has accompanied me all of my life. I think it’s a piece I have been playing at every single gig!

I recorded it with some special musicians: Antonio Carmona de los Habichuela, Davide Viterbo, Johnny McCarthy, and Enio Marfoli.

I met Ultan in 2017 and immediately felt a very deep connection, more than just musical! My musical path has been full of collaborations with extraordinary musicians from various traditions, like the ones mentioned above. These collaborations were never driven by business; rather, they were meaningful -and sometimes magical and incredible- life adventures.

With Ultan, the feeling was similar to the relationship I had with Ronnie Drew, with whom I’d lived with like a family for 13 years, a story that is described in the compilation that includes all of our work: ‘From Dublin to Bilbao’.

Of course, the age difference between me and Ultan is the reverse of the one between me and Ronnie… In fact, I think that my new label is going to be called NO AGE MUSIC!

So, it came about spontaneously, during the process of recording the new album with Ultan, with entirely new compositions (and very different from this one in terms of style and sound!), to take an hour to film a live take of this piece.

For me, Punta Umbria represents a new beginning, containing the richness of the background from the past.
So this collaboration just had to start with this tune, as a ritual, a catharsis!

The new album that Ultan and I recorded is born of our past musical paths, but it also opens its wings to new and unexpected sounds.

We hope you enjoy ‘Punta Umbria’, and we can’t wait to share our new compositions with you when the new album comes out!”

There is a certain magic in the air when Antoni and Ultan perform the piece together, and in the video below, they both appear all consumed in the music…it’s a delight to listen to and watch.