Sometimes the human voice is all you need, communicating something essential about our drive to exist together as a species, to sound our internal worlds in union, at volume. Named after an Irish term for a cloak for protection, a breastplate and a hymn, this Irish quartet’s second album is incredibly simple on paper: a collection of 10 songs about bold women featuring four exceptional female singers (Méabh Meir, Lily Power, Ruth Clinton and Sinéad Lynch). But these interpretations of songs such as “The Newry Highwayman”, “Blackwaterside” and “Death and the Lady”, produced by John “Spud” Murphy (who also produces Lankum), are astonishingly mighty and moving.
Landless are Lily Power, Meabh Meir, Ruth Clinton and Sinead Lynch. Formed in 2013 and based in Ireland, they sing unaccompanied traditional songs in four-part harmony.
Occasional, minimal accompaniment by pipe organ, clavichord, shruti box and strings only lifts the weight of their harmonies higher.
Released 7th June on Glitterbeat Records. Traditional, arranged by Landless Recorded, mixed and produced by John ‘Spud’ Murphy
The Fat Angel Sings 