Trá Pháidín have announced their new album, Cloch ‘s Claí (Stone & Wall), out 25th September via World of Echo, and shared its launch track, An Béal Bocht, alongside a video.
The video, a collaboration between João Tudella, Dónal Dineen and the band, gathers images from around the Conamara Gaeltacht: homes, schools, factories, barracks, holiday villages, the ruins of the cottage from John Ford’s The Quiet Man, and the Claíochaí Bána, the region’s dry-stone walls, lying empty, derelict or abandoned by progress. It was supported by the Galway County Council Arts Office.
An Béal Bocht (The Poor Mouth) takes its title from Myles na gCopaleen’s 1941 novel (the author also known as Brian O’Nolan, or Flann O’Brien) which is widely regarded as one of the most important Irish-language novels of the 20th century. The album builds on that satirical spirit, turning a wry eye on Éire’s relationship with the Irish language and the Gaeltacht, the regions where Gaeilge remains the primary tongue.
Trá Pháidín are a mutable collective, active since 2019 and scattered across Conamara Theas, Cathair Chorcaí, Ciarraí, Uíbh Fhailí, Sligeach and Port Láirge. Their music, largely self-released until now, folds jazz, folk and krautrock into a strain of original Gaelic music with a taste for traditional Irish absurdity. Thomas Blake reviewed their last album, An 424, in 2024, who called it “a brilliantly diverse and highly original record, introducing elements of topography and sociology into a kind of DIY avant-garde folk music with results that are always entertaining and never stuffy or overly academic.”
Cloch ‘s Claí (25th September) is their first for World of Echo, released digitally and on limited-edition vinyl. Pre-Order here: https://slinky.to/ClochsClai