MUSIC Northern Lights to appear in Belmullet

SCANDINAVIAN SYMMETRY LorcΡn Mac Mathúna, Raphael de Cock and Rémi Decker of Northern Lights.

Northern Lights to appear in Belmullet arts centre


Ciara Moynihan

Scandinavia meets Ireland this Friday in Áras Inis Gluaire, Belmullet, when Northern Lights will perform. Combining the traditional music and songs of both cultures, Northern Lights are a Gaelic-Norse collaboration between three performers – LorcΡn Mac Mathúna (voice, srutti), Raphael de Cock (uilleann pipes, low whistle, voice, chatkhan, hardanger fiddle, Jew’s harp) and Rémi Decker (guitar, pipes).
Based in Ireland and Belgium, these musicians came together to illustrate how the themes of folk music are transmitted throughout different traditions. The show is a performance dialogue of songs from Ireland and Scandinavia, taking its direction from the mood of songs separated by language but placed in the same emotional sphere. A dialogue of conjoined songs and switching language, it aims to create a soundscape that conveys the local and the universal at once.
Northern Lights’s debut album, ‘Dubh agus Geal – Darkness and Light’, was released 18 months ago to critical acclaim. An Irish Times review described it as ‘spectacular’, ‘highly charged’ and ‘deeply expressive’, while online music magazine FolkWorld said it was ‘definitely one of the best Celtic-influenced albums of 2011’.
The group’s live show takes audiences on a journey through exile, lament, superstition, ghosts and ice-bound seas, from Ireland to Norway and Sweden; through unfamiliar sounds with a familiar tone.
De Cock, Mac Mathúna and Decker say they have found extraordinary similarities in the themes explored by both traditions – indeed, in all traditions – in particular, an innate need to express human passions. They believe that these expressions are so fundamental that they are instantly recognisable, regardless of language. Their music shows how a powerful dialogue can be created between to seemingly disparate traditions, reminding the listener that in all human difference there is similarity.
On the back of a hugely successful Belgian tour last year, the trio decided to bring the show – entitled ‘Fjord and Glen - Songs of Ireland and Scandinavia’ to Ireland. They played their first gig in Dublin last Thursday, and have since embarked on a nine-date whirlwind tour of the country, finishing in Sligo next month.

Northern Lights will perform in Áras Inis Gluaire, Belmullet, Friday, January 25, at 8pm. Admission €10/€8.