Our latest Off the Shelf guests are Dublin duo Varo – Consuelo Nerea Breschi and Lucie Azconaga (originally from Italy and France, respectively, but long-settled in Ireland). In this series, we ask artists to present objects from a shelf or shelves in their homes and discuss them, a form of storytelling through objects. Varo recently released their highly anticipated new album, The World That I Knew, a collaborative project that we first heard about in 2020. It features 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.
In his review of the album, Thomas Blake notes, “Some cities seem to have a life beyond normal geography: they are cultural meeting points, places where ideas are shared and grown and where art flourishes in new and specific ways. For the last few years, Dublin has been the foremost example of such places, giving us some of the most exciting and unique music of recent times. Varo are a crucial part of that scene…The World That I Knew represents the combination of years of work, an album with its roots in Covid lockdown, but with branches that spread through Dublin’s music scene and beyond.”
He concludes: “Varo are brilliantly in tune with the various ways a song’s meaning can shift over time, and this collaborational format is perfect for documenting those shifts. The World That I Knew tracks contemporary concerns through traditional song, and it does so with beauty and fierce compassion.”
VARO’s album The World That I Knew is available now on limited edition vinyl and digital download via Bandcamp. See varodublin.com for upcoming live dates.
Off the Shelf with Varo
CONSUELO: This amazing picture that looks like a painting
This picture has been with me for as long as I can remember. It originally belonged to my parents, and when I moved out of my childhood home, I took it with me. Since then, it has followed me to every place I’ve lived.
I only wish I knew who the photographer was!
The image captures a moment of traditional music and dance at a countryside gathering in the Basque Country, a place I love so much, and whose people and culture hold a special place in my heart. It radiates a powerful warmth, a sense of togetherness and community.
Beyond its beauty—it seems almost like a painting—it has for me an animated quality, as if it’s alive. I often find myself staring at it, imagining what that moment must have been. I start hearing the sound of the trikitixa, the echo of the irrintzi, and see the dancers moving in circles.
It makes me wonder about the lives of those captured in that shot—who they were, where they are now, or who their descendants might be.
Though it’s only a single image, it opens like a book, inviting my mind to wander through time and memory.
There’s a sort of joy and sadness associated with this picture, watching this beautiful moment captured for eternity, and realising immediately after that it belongs to the past.
I suppose that same sense of nostalgia is what draws me so deeply to the music I love.
CONSUELO: This little pendant
This lovely little pendant was made by my dear friends—and incredibly talented artists—Gregorio and Alessia, when I moved from Italy to Ireland. They found a tiny shamrock and had the brilliant idea of preserving it in amber, creating this special ‘amulet’ for me. They packed it into a small roisin case and gave it to me before I left.
I treasure the time spent with them while I was still living in Italy. Gregorio is not only a great visual artist, but also an amazing piper with whom I spent many afternoons playing tunes back then. We travelled countless kilometres to meet and play sessions with our other ‘trad-addicted’ friends across Italy.
I wouldn’t be playing the music I do now if it weren’t for their friendship, inspiration, and constant encouragement. And of course, I’ll never forget the countless long, joyful Italian dinners we shared—full of laughter, stories, and music.
CONSUELO: A poster of Diana from Pompei
Throughout my life, I’ve met some very strong and special women who had this poster in their homes. The first time I saw it, I was in high school. I didn’t know what it was, but I remember thinking, Oh, I like that! She seemed so elegant, and at the same time, powerful. I loved the colours and the way it looked ancient.
Later, I learned that it was the well-known fresco from Pompeii depicting the Roman goddess Diana, who came to embody much of the mythology of the Greek goddess Artemis. Diana is associated with the phases of the moon, she’s a protector of women, wild nature and animals, the night, crossroads, the underworld, childbirth, and—as I only recently discovered—also of slaves, who could find refuge in her temples in ancient Rome.
When I was about to become a mother, and things sometimes felt scary, this poster was the first talisman I chose to accompany me on that beautiful and mysterious journey into the unknown.
CONSUELO: Our Olive Tree
All plants have a life of their own, and it definitely feels like they have a soul! But this one means a little extra to me. It was given to me by my partner after a difficult time we went through, and it made me cry when it arrived as a surprise at my door in Dublin 7. It felt like a piece of my past had joined me here in Ireland, a piece of the land where I grew up, the Tuscan countryside, where I spent 28 years of my life.
The best part of the story is that we found a whiskey barrel to use as a pot, and this combination perfectly captures who I am now!
I love it so much, and I’m amazed it’s doing so well, even if far away from its native country.
We added these little flower guys and a tomato plant to keep it company!
CONSUELO: An Image of Victor Jara
This is a photo of Victor Jara taken from the sleeve notes of my mum’s vinyl from the 70’s.
I have it on the wall as a reminder that we always need to remember.
An incredible songwriter and folk singer, who was brutally tortured and killed by the Pinochet army shortly after the right-wing coup in 1973 in Chile, one of the many U.S.-supported coups financed by the C.I.A. to get rid of all left movements in South America.
In a moment like this, where thousands of people are massacred in Palestine, it is more important than ever for me to be reminded every day of the artists who were true to their values, and fought for peace, justice and human rights, bringing hope and light through dark times.
This is a translation of ‘Manifesto’, a song that Victor wrote shortly before he was killed:
I don’t sing for the love of singing,
or because I have a good voice.
I sing because my guitar
has both feeling and reason.
It has a heart of earth
and the wings of a dove,
it is like holy water,
blessing joy and grief.
My song has found a purpose
as Violeta would say.
Hardworking guitar,
with a smell of spring.
My guitar is not for the rich
no, nothing like that.
My song is of the ladder
we are building to reach the stars.
For a song has meaning
when it beats in the veins
of a man who will die singing,
truthfully singing his songs.
My song is not for fleeting praise
nor to gain foreign fame,
it is for this narrow country
to the very depth of the earth.
There, where everything comes to rest
and where everything begins,
song which has been brave songwill be forever new.
LUCIE: My Grandma’s Wedding Ring
My grandma immigrated to the south of France from the Baleares Islands in 1939 at the age of 5 with all her family on a bark, in the middle of the night, fleeing the Spanish regime and the war led by Franco. When she turned 15, another immigrant, a Spanish refugee from Mondragon (Spanish Basque Country), was sent to live with her family in St Etienne. When he arrived in the city, he only had the name of a family and an address on a piece of paper. He got out of the tramway, she was there with her brother and a friend of hers after working in the mines. Her brother asked her to bring this young man to their house. From the first look, she fell madly in love with him, they got married a few years later.
About 25 years later, four children and a life together in Pau, my grandfather passed away. I was only 3 years old. She never remarried and kept loving him and talked to us about him all her life.
When she passed in 2018, she had left my granddad’s wedding ring to my sister and hers to me. It never leaves me; I wear it every day.
LUCIE: My fiddle
When I arrived in Ireland, I had a fiddle that I had bought in a small luthier shop, back in Bordeaux. It was a very loud, shiny-sounding kind of fiddle. I was only starting to learn that instrument and all I wanted was to be quiet and discrete until I would be listenable. We didn’t get along very well due to our different personalities..
I couldn’t practice at my house as I had five housemates when I first moved here. Tom Mulligan, the boss and owner of the Cobblestone, offered me to use a room upstairs from the pub. So I did, every day, for a few months. In a corner, under a pile of instrument cases, papers and a fair bit of dust, was a fiddle case. I asked Tom if I could try that fiddle. Despite my poor level of playing, the sound was gentle and warm and gave me some comfort and confidence. I fell in love with this fiddle.
After lending it to me for a few weeks and understanding how much I loved it, he offered to trade my own fiddle for this one. My fiddle became the Cobblestone’s fiddle, left behind the bar for fiddlers who would come in without their instrument, and I kept my new friend with me, who’s now been with me for 14 years.
LUCIE: Miss Lywood
I bought this picture at one of the first second-hand markets I went to in Dublin about 14 years ago. Can’t remember which one it was. I had just moved to a new house with my partner, at the time, it was still possible to be broke and still be able to afford a gaff as a couple. I even had a small room to myself dedicated to working on music, so I went looking for things to decorate it. When coming home with her, I put the photo on a shelf, beside a big yellow flower pot, which hid the bottom corner of the photo in a way that I could only see the name ‘Lywood’. For me, she therefore has always been ‘Miss Lywood’.
I loved that picture from the first look. Not only was the woman beautiful with her hat, man’s suit, and bowtie, but she also seemed strong, independent, calm, reassuring, cool, and timeless. I found her very inspiring, and she did inspire me a lot of music. She also kept me company in very lonely moments over the years. She kind of looks like she’s holding an invisible smoke. So I smoked with her many a time, while we were having telepathic conversations.
LUCIE: My Teddy bear
A close friend of my mum’s put him inside my cradle at the maternity hospital when I was 1 day old. It was a lot cleaner then, and my mum’s cat had not eaten the corner of his ear yet. He never left me. He was there when I was growing up in the French countryside. I cried on his belly, told him my secrets, and hid him gently in my wardrobe when my friends were coming to spend the afternoon. Then, at 18, I brought him with me to Bordeaux, then Paris, Créon, and finally Dublin. Always stayed somewhere in my bedroom, like a quiet ‘innocence-keeper’.
LUCIE: Betty Boop Piggy Bank
I bought this as a gift joke for my partner when we moved in together years ago. We had no money, in fairness, none of us was great at saving. We were looking for a way to start saving that wouldn’t be too ‘adult’, like going to the bank and opening a savings account.. Who better than Betty Boop, an independent sexy cabaret singer from the 30’s, to keep our tips and busking money? Poo-poo-pee-doo. It never got full, not even close, and was left behind by my partner when we broke up.. Now I put my money in the bank, I cut that Piggy bank’s coin top off, and it’s keeping my cooking tools together. Although like Betty Boop, I sing, but I don’t cook.. ‘Who cares?’ as your one is saying at the back. A useless object, not finding a real purpose, but that I like to have.
VARO’s album The World That I Knew is available now on limited edition vinyl and digital download via Bandcamp. See varodublin.com for upcoming live dates.