Anyone who’s taken note of Frames fiddler Colm Mac Con Iomaire’s contributions to that band’s finer moments – the epic perambulations of ‘Fitzcarraldo’, the simple heart-stabbing strokes of ‘Happy’ – or watched him hunched over various dictaphones, pedals and customised gizmos during their mid-period, will express no surprise at the scope of his debut album. The title refers to the corner of a field left uncut by farmers to offer refuge for hares; this collection provides a similar service for the many orphan pieces he’s composed over the years.
Recorded over two weeks in a trailer in Wexford and produced by Karl Odlum, The Hare’s Corner grants this multi-instrumentalist (violin, harmonium, banjo, bouzouki, guitar and cello) unlimited free expression.
Mac Con Iomaire may have started out as part of the Kila collective, but his range runs well beyond the Celtic pastoral and into the post-rock, the ambient and the neo-classical.
‘Thou Shalt Not Carry Timber’ suggests a jazzier Dirty Three; ‘Time Will Tell’ effortlessly evolves from the whimsical to the epic; ‘The Court Of New Town’ might have been commissioned for a chieftain’s wedding, such is its splendour. And if titles like ‘The Cuckoo Of Glen Nephin’, ‘Emer’s Dream’ and ‘Second Wave’ evoke Yeats’s first act, the atmospheres are as close to Michael Nyman or even Arvo Part as O’Riada.
Hollywood scouts looking to headhunt Mac Con Iomaire’s Swell Season comrades would be wisely directed towards this little item for their soundtrack requirements. The Hare’s Corner is a graceful, stately piece of work.
Key Track: ‘Time Will Tell’