Look at Sinéad Smyth’s cover artwork for Cold Sea, the solo album from Oisín Leech, one half of acclaimed Irish duo The Lost Brothers. Smyth’s piece is titled Skylines III and was composed around the Donegal shores where Cold Sea was recorded in an old schoolhouse. Oil painted by brush, knife and hand, Smyth’s work captures golden pathways and wrathful clouds under the magic influence of natural light. It’s a wuthering vision and one that Leech was aiming to capture in song with his equally bracing album.
Along with guitarist-producer Steve Gunn, Leech also invited Dylan’s bassist Tony Garnier and the likes of Dónal Lunny (bouzouki) and Róisin McGrory (strings) on board. Not that the outcome sounds like a full-on band, for the musicians add subtly to Leech’s acoustic material. What’s left is an album of rapt meditations on life and love, set against the wild Irish landscape. These are songs that flow placidly, broodingly, leaving the listener awed into silence.
Leech’s deep voice stirs up tender associations, his lyrics pared to the bone. October Sun finds him ‘Rolling home, adrift and alone/Late for the day like a skimming stone’. Robust campfire strums here underscore a melody as graceful as a canyon wind. Then, on Colour of the Rain, Leech’s lonesome woozy vocal tells us ‘The water’s carpentry, it cut the open sea’. Leech is a fan of Seamus Heaney, who, as a young man, paid attention to DH Lawrence’s theory: ‘Everything can go but this stark, bare, rocky directness of statement; this alone makes poetry today.’ You suspect that Leech, with his own lyrical economy, would understand.
A native of County Meath, Leech journeys northward on One Hill Further with its pastoral melody over a gleaming drone. Maritime Radio filters Lanois-like guitar shimmers into a weather forecast, while Empire heads into Country & Irish territory. A lament spiked with dusty slide guitar, its mysterious narrator observes a realm of rain that’s bruised and battered.
The lilting Malin Gales plays with a tipsy melody as Leech’s vocal stands exposed like the rugged Irish coast. Cold Sea and Daylight are both instrumentals sent to conjure peace and desolation through electronic gusts. You can imagine Leech and Gunn scavenging bits of noise here and there like sonic beachcombers. The album’s wistful travelogue reaches a fitting end on Trawbreaga Bay where McGrory’s rich and soulful violin pours into the mix.
Leech’s vision of Ireland as a place to heal and transform makes Cold Sea a sanctuary well worth visiting. Just don’t expect the Donegal weather to welcome you so warmly.
Oisin Leech Tour Dates – 2024
March 17- London, UK – Rough Trade West – In Store (3:30pm)
March 21 – Hebden, UK – Hebden Bridge Trades Club** (SOLD OUT)
March 22 – Wrexham, UK – The Rockin’ Chair**
March 23 – Norwich, UK – Norwich Arts Centre** (SOLD OUT)
March 24 – Manchester, UK – Band On The Wall** (SOLD OUT)
April 4 – Dublin, IE – Sugar Club*
April 5 – Galway, IE – An Taibhdhearc Theatre*
April 6 – Letterkenny, IE – Regional Cultural Centre*
April 12- Kilkenny, IE – Cleere’s
April 13 – Waterford, IE – Phil Grimes (SOLD OUT)
April 14 – Cork, IE – Coughlans
April 18 – Limerick, IE – Dolans
April 19 – Ballydehob, IE – Levis’
April 26 – Manorhamilton, IE – The Glens
April 30 – London, UK – The Lexington
May 3 – Paris, FR – L’Archipel
* = Oisin performs Cold Sea with Steve Gunn, Dónal Lunny and Róisín McGrory
** = As Special Guest for Gaz Coombes