VARO announce John ‘Spud’ Murphy-produced folk album feat. Ian Lynch (Lankum), John Francis Flynn, Anna Mieke, Alannah Thornburgh, Junior Brother, Lemoncello, Niamh Bury and more.
Dublin-based duo VARO, featuring Consuelo Nerea Breschi from Italy and Lucie Azconaga from France, first caught our ears in 2019, before their self-titled debut album was released in 2020. While frequently introduced as a trad music duo, their music is far more unique than that term suggests. In his review of their debut, Thomas Blake nailed it in his opening paragraph, describing how their music stands out markedly from much of the traditional Irish music that has emerged in the last few years…It may be to do with the fact that the pair are not Irish, that they bring an outsider’s clarity of vision and keenness of insight to a genre that sometimes falls foul of overemphasising its inherent nostalgia. But there is more to it than that, an ineffable quality that comes across as a barely perceptible strangeness or otherness in tunes that will be familiar to many listeners.
He concludes that, alongside the likes of “Lisa O’Neill, Ye Vagabonds and Lankum, they all share a deep understanding of traditional music, and of how to balance the desire to preserve the genre’s heritage with the need to create a form of music that is fresh and new. It is an exciting time for Irish folk music, and Varo’s accomplished debut should position them at the forefront of the scene.”
In the same year as their debut, we shared news their fundraising campaign for a collaborative project and album featuring some of the biggest names in Ireland’s contemporary folk and trad scene: Ian Lynch (Lankum), John Francis Flynn, Anna Mieke, Alannah Thornburgh, Junior Brother, Slow Moving Clouds, Niamh Bury, Inni-K, Ruth Clinton and Cormac MacDiarmada (Poor Creature), Lemoncello and Branwen.
It’s been a long time coming, but this week, they announced their John ‘Spud’ Murphy-produced folk album, titled The World That I Knew, will be independently released on 9th May 2025.
They have also shared their lead single, Red Robin (feat. Alannah Thornburgh). You can watch the accompanying video below.
Lucie Azconaga and Consuelo Nerea Breschi (A.K.A. VARO) say of the new single: “We learned this song from a 1977 recording of Mikey Kelleher (1907-1987), found in an online collection of songs from County Clare. We immediately fell in love with the melody and lyrics, which describes a state of mind rather than a real story. It seemed to paint a paysage of melancholy, memories and loneliness, and at the same time of extreme human warmth and connection with the elements of nature.”
“Working with Alannah has been an absolute pleasure,” the pair continue. “She’s insanely talented and the loveliest woman. The harp perfectly creates this soft melancholic and emotional sound we were looking for.”
Alannah Thornburgh is an award-winning multi-instrumentalist and composer with a focus on Irish harp. Alannah’s music explores her family’s musical heritage, reimagining ancient airs and tunes from the Irish harping and American folk & jazz traditions.
“It was a pleasure working on the arrangement of ‘Red Robin’ with Varo and bringing it to life in many performances and recordings since,” says Alannah Thornburgh.
The video was filmed by Daniel Bolaños Meade and Directed by VARO.
Alannah Thornburgh and another of the album’s collaborators, Branwen, will join VARO at their headline show at the Pepper Cannister Church, Dublin on Saturday 25th January, as part of TradFest 2025. Tickets available now from TradFest.com.