The Hall of Einar Sunday Recommendation #45

Hello and welcome to my Sunday Recommendation. Thanks for joining me. Every week I read great wildlife and nature books, stumble upon engrossing websites and hear wonderful new music. This is my chance to bring you carefully curated recommendations of all the best I’ve experienced – every Sunday. If it’s folk, or independent, or about wildlife, nature or Orkney, I may love it, and so may you.

Awakening by Imar

Awakening is the third album from Imar and their first in five years.

It’s a triumph of powerful Celtic folk, with Scottish, Irish and Manx members bringing joy and life to their performances. Adam Brown is on bodhrán, Adam Rhodes on bouzouki, Mohsen Amini plays concertina, Ryan Murphy makes the most glorious noise on uilleann pipes and Tomás Callister plays a dashing fiddle. They all share a background in Irish music and have won competitions and prizes and titles and adoring audiences. I’ve been working on writing and editing a long document this week and have enjoyed the energy of the music as I’ve been working late and putting in long hours. It’s been energising to have on, and familiarity has given me a deeper appreciation of just how good an album it is. There’s subtlety in the performance, beauty in the arrangements and life in the recording and mixing. The ten tracks work well together and make a unified whole. It’s an album you’ll love and develop a relationship with so that it becomes a part of who you are.

Here’s the promoted single from the album, Stinger, which consists of three tunes, Paddy Kelly’s (Trad Arr.) Black Tap (Tomas Callister) This Too Shall Pass (Ryan Murphy & friends). Just listen to how great the transitions are:

Imar are named after the 9th Century Norse Gael King Imar, whose descendants ruled the Irish Sea region for centuries. I suspect the music of Imar will have the same impact. Do check them out at www.imarband.com. You won’t regret it.

That’s it for this week. I’ll be back with more recommendations of things you might adore next Sunday. In the meantime, I wish you a great week. Keep safe, everyone.

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