Davy Spillane: The Sea Of Dreams

Along with Liam O'Flynn, Davy Spillane has done much over the years to convert new worshippers to the haunting sound of the uilleann pipes, and few will ever forget his high-octane contributions to Moving Hearts at their peak. But throughout The Sea Of Dreams, Spillane barely moves into second gear and takes a much more reflective approach on what is a collection of almost exclusively slow and wistful airs, mostly written or co-written by the pied piper himself.

Unfortunately, the production and arrangements sometimes risk drowning his tantalising artistry in a torrent of synths and new ageisms, to the point where the album nearly sees a prodigious talent disappearing into the Celtic mists, all in the cause of producing what can sound at times like background music for the awareness tent at Glastonbury.

However, on repeated listenings, it becomes clearer that Spillane's retains the ability to imprint his musical personality on a tune. There are some tracks here that really do work effectively.

'Big Sea Ballad' is a meditative, emotional melody suggesting more than a hint of South America and 'Daire's Dream' and 'Inagh' are both evocative and melancholy gems. 'The May Morning Dew', the totally solo whistle effort that brings the album to a close, is another haunting piece of work that should stand tall in the impressive Spillane canon.

Sinéad O'Connor guests on two tracks and, while she brings an appropriately weary and provocative plaintiveness to 'The Dreaming Of The Bones', the version of 'Danny Boy' here adds nothing to a song that has been around the block more than once too often. (Incidentally, it's puzzling to note that the song's lyric-writer Fred Weatherly receives no sleeve credit.)

When sweeping keyboard washes and windswept cymbals aren't dominating your speakers, there are some subtle instrumental contributions to support Spillane's own, especially from Paul Moran on drums, Greg Boland on guitar and Tony Molloy on bass - but somehow you can't help feeling that somewhere in The Sea Of Dreams there lurks a truly great album struggling to get out.