Old Segotia is not the first time Seán Mac Erlaine and Caoimhín Ó Raghallaigh have worked together: they make up the Irish half of international quartet This Is How We Fly, splicing traditional European folk music with experimental jazz. Within the dynamic of the full band, it would seem to be fiddler Ó Raghallaigh who presses the case for folk, while clarinettist Mac Erlaine brings the jazz. But performing together as a duo is a little different: there is a sense that some kind of intense musical conversation is going on, and a conversation only works if both parties are speaking the same language. To that end, Old Segotia sees the pair approach each other in a different way, with a rapport that feels both more intimate and more experimental than their previous work.
It’s tempting to say that they have found a middle ground, but that phrase has connotations of compromise, and compromise isn’t something either of these two wants to entertain. Instead, they have created a new palette based on a mixture of their own colours. The ideas come thick and fast: the eleven tracks here are admirably varied, and the longest – opener Jeu de Plomb – is under five minutes, and consists of Ó Raghallaigh’s impressionistic fiddle notes and Mac Erlaine’s jittery percussion and flitting clarinet.
Elsewhere, lead track Reverse Burst features cool, melodic keys while Ó Raghallaigh’s hardanger d’amore adds a yearning refrain. The pair settle into a smoky, rhythmic groove, delightfully atmospheric, noirish and almost clandestine. Cantandor sees the pair mirror each other note for note and acts as a kind of real-time lesson in the nuances of collaboration, while Foremostly plays on the tension between the two, with high and sometimes harsh strings playing off against the soft woodwind. In both cases, it’s hard to make out where the folk ends and the jazz begins.
The brief Honky Whale contrasts dimly-lit chords with a burst of fiddle almost like a peal of bells. A plucked fiddle provides the minimal spine of Thirdal, which leans heavily and rewardingly into the avant-garde with its improvisational scapes and flutters. The title track offers up a playful intro of scuttling, skittering strings, and Swallow Dive is full of aptly swooping melodicism.
Ó Raghallaigh and Mac Erlaine aren’t afraid of modernity, or of augmenting their traditional instruments with electronics: the itchy intro to Shallow Dive could come from IDM or minimal techno, before the piece branches off into exploratory jazz melodies. Hildegund’s stop-start structure owes something to minimalism or modern composition, while the beautiful closing track Oíche Crua Sna Sléibhte features field recordings of birds (made by ornithologist Seán Ronayne), and the sweet, melancholic lyricism of the piece itself sounds like a kind of birdsong.
Perhaps the most impressive thing about Old Segotia is its sheer range. This sort of album often picks a theme or a mood and sticks with it. That’s not the case here. Mac Erlaine and Ó Raghallaigh utilise a vast array of instruments, from a Wurlitzer to a flute, from synths to car horns, and it all unfolds like a complex and endlessly surprising map of a new kind of musical terrain. Old Segotia is a perfect example of how to combine a variety of elements without diluting any of them.
Old Segotia (November 7th, 2025) Ergodos
Bandcamp: https://ergodos.bandcamp.com/album/old-segotia