Echotal and cellist Jo Quail join forces on 'Poseidon'

Six months after the release of their powerful single 'Endless Fields', Echotal have returned with 'Poseidon' – and an accompanying music video by Chariot of Black Moth.

As well as featuring vocals and guitar from David Rooney, acoustic guitar and effects from God Is An Astronaut's Torsten Kinsella, and harmony vocals from Jay Willson and Gavin McCabe, 'Poseidon' finds Echotal once again collaborating with London-based cellist and composer Jo Quail.

Having previously worked together on Echotal's 'Melting Ice', Rooney tells Hot Press that he sent Quail a song demo idea,  recorded on his phone at a higher key than he had intended – forcing him to sing in falsetto.

"Jo loved the falsetto, and pushed me to use it," Rooney explains. "Producer Torsten Kinsella then suggested I write a chorus based on an instrumental break I had."

"When it came to me, 'Poseidon' was already a perfect song!" Quail adds. "I decided on a path to weave in and out of the vocals, and to help support and tell the story with subtle touches of cello here and there. It was a privilege to be invited to contribute to this moving song."

The song's lyrics came to Rooney in a dream he had "about waiting for a loved one to return to where we had spent time by the sea, feeling that the reunification was unlikely but knowing that should I awake it never would."

"The chorus became a prayer for intercession to a long lost deity Poseidon," he resumes "My late mother was fond of praying to saints, she had her favourites."

Take a look at the video for 'Poseidon' below:

Rooney, a leading Irish illustrator and visual artist, also worked with Quail on the artwork for her new album, The Cartographer.

"An early conversation with Jo led me to sharing with her my love of cormorants," Rooney tells us. "As a ten year old child I hated school at the local Christian Brothers School in Midleton Co. Cork, where we lived at the time.

"My escape was bird watching at the nearby estuary, where one day I found a dead cormorant with a ring on its leg," he continues. "I posted the ring off to the UK address that was on it and a few weeks later I got a letter outlining the bird’s history. Ringed in Scotland, spotted in Howth and died in Midleton, I was over the moon.

"I felt I was part of a bigger world, beyond the beatings in the school and even beyond the mouth of the estuary. Jo gave me the opportunity to celebrate the cormorant and happily the artwork idea resonated with her musical composition also."

Jo Quail – The Cartographer