Following the news of their sold-out show on 4th January, Lankum has added a second date due to phenomenal demand for 5th January 2020. Tickets €30 on sale this Friday at 9AM.
Made up of brothers Ian and Daragh Lynch, Cormac MacDiarmada and Radie Peat, Lankum have gained worldwide acclaim for their first two albums and captivating, often euphoric live performances. ‘The Livelong Day’, recorded and produced by John ‘Spud’ Murphy in the Meadow and Guerrilla Sounds studio, through March and May of 2019 successfully blends alternative folk and psychedelia. Lankum have fully cemented their reputation as one of the most unique and talked about groups to emerge from Ireland in decades. One of the best Irish albums of the year.
Lankum honour the sacredness of traditional Irish tunes, but allow them to metamorphose, to grow and breathe like the heavy, ancient breath of the Uilleann pipes which seethe beneath the tracks of their third studio album (and second with Rough Trade) ‘The Livelong Day’. “Drone is a big part of traditional music because the Uilleann pipes are indigenous to Ireland, so we’re ramping up that history and taking it as far as we can.”
This is the idea found at the core of the universe created in T’he Livelong Day’; expanding and emboldening, that which is already playing out in history. Alongside the traditional songs on the record, there are two originals, the haunting ‘Young People’ and the tragic beauty of ‘Hunting The Wren’. The latter was composed by Ian as part of a writing challenge with Lisa O’Neill, in which Ian gave Lisa the subject of Violet Gibson, an Irish woman who went over to Rome and skim-shot Mussolini on the nose (it features on her album ‘Heard A Long Gone Song’), while Lisa gave Ian the song subject of the Wrens of Curragh. Mirroring these marginalized women, who were described as, “free-thinkers, prostitutes, alcoholics, vagrants, ex-convicts and harvest workers,” and created their ‘nests’ out of furze in the rough plains of Curragh, County Kildare, is the wren – a bird hunted and tyrannized in Irish folklore.
It is effortless to connect with the songs of ‘The Livelong Day’ because it is an album devoid of ego. Despite the intensive historical and musical research that goes into selecting, writing and arranging these songs, the rare knowledge that they may have or their intricate musical skill, these songs are never indulged or overfilled. There is an understanding that If you can play one note, just one note and let it drag its feet with the weight of feeling, it can make a song even more affecting in its sparseness. “In this album compared to last, we wanted more percussive elements, more rhythm, more movement but at the same time we were more confident just going into the studio and seeing what happens,and leaving space open for experimentation.” While there isn’t a theme or concept as such, there is a tone that runs through it: “it’s a combination of being desperately depressing and hopeful at the same time.”
Don’t miss this extraordinary live show this 5th January live at Vicar Street, 5th January 2020.
