A fantastic night of Irish music from our great friends at Sizeable Bear Promotions.
LEMONCELLO:
Lemoncello is the collaborative project of Irish songwriter Laura Quirke and cellist Claire Kinsella, nominated as ‘Best Emerging Folk Act’ in the RTÉ Radio 1 Folk Awards 2019. The pair started playing music together while at University, where they bonded over musical intricacies; close vocal harmonies, humour and vulnerability in lyric writing. Their debut EP ‘Stuck Upon the Staircase’ was released in 2018, deemed by The Irish Times as ‘baroque folk good for the head and heart’ and The Thin Air as ‘cello, guitar and interweaving vocal motifs marrying in exquisite fashion’. Their performances, described by The Journal of Music as ‘ramshackle and sassy’, saw Lemoncello touring extensively in Ireland and abroad, most notably Other Voices, CCI, Paris and Irish Arts Centre, NYC, as well as appearing on national Irish & UK television and radio.
ARBORIST:
Arborist are a Belfast-based band; the product of the musical and lyrical misadventures of Mark McCambridge, surrounded by a cast of well-travelled musicians.
Arborist join us just months after launching their long awaited 2nd album A Northern View. It is the follow-up to their critically acclaimed debut album Home Burial and has been called "a striking collection of songs, containing some of their finest work yet" by Clash Music.. The album features the singles Taxi and Here Comes the Devil which have been played widely across BBC 6Music from the likes of Cillian Murphy, Cerys Matthews, Gideon Coe, Steve Lamacq and John Hillcock.
Their new album A Northern View portrays a raw darkness but with glimpses of beauty at the heart of it all; the kind of balance found in records like Wilco’s A Ghost is Born or Songs Ohia’s Magnolia Electric Co. The album title felt like a nice way of framing all that came-out, like a clandestine publication of some kind. Though as McCambridge explains; “I recently discovered it’s a caravan park in Donegal, so there you go.”
MARK LOUGHREY:
Mark Loughrey is an Irish Alt-Folk singer-songwriter born in Sion Mills but currently living in Berlin. In October 2017, after a summer of recording in the various kitchens and bedrooms of Belfast, he self-released his debut album 'Treppenwitz' before moving to Berlin. His music creates a collage of historical imagery, personal relationships and musings on religion, rituals & propaganda. Astronauts, skeletons, fires, silicone dolls, and simulations are just some of the lyrical seasonings & stories that await. Mark is currently working on a new release which can be expected later in 2020.
''Mark Loughrey is a singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist whose alt-folk craft belies a strong grasp of the more romantically-inclined twists and kinks of the human condition.'' - The Thin Air.
HEY RUSTY
Hey Rusty is the songwriting project of Limerick musician John Ahern. A combination of jangling 12 String guitar riffs and ear-worm vocal melodies, Hey Rusty is an exercise in presenting earnest, thoughtfully crafted songs with a stripped back, lo-fi aesthetic, reminiscent of 90s acts such as Elliott Smith, Pedro the Lion and Bright Eyes.
2020 sees Hey Rusty in a live setting expand to a four-piece band. This change in personnel reflects a slew of new material which combines Hey Rusty’s existing lo-fi acoustic sound with a distinctly modern retro flavour inspired by acts like Camera Obscura and Richard Hawley. This development is evident in Hey Rusty’s upcoming Micheal Keating-produced double A side “All Night Daylight/ Since You Were Strangers”, due for release in March 2020.