Fidil - The Old Wheel Of Fortune (2011)

There's an old Irish saying that claims'the older the fiddle, the sweeter the tune.’ It's doubtful whether the fiddles employed by this triumvirate of Donegal men in their 20s are of the antique variety, but their music is dulcetly redolent of the Irish county's strong fiddle and piping traditions. The Old Wheel of Fortune is Fidil's third album and one that employs no instruments other than the three fiddles of Aidan O'Donnell, Damien McGeehan and Ciarán Ó Maonaigh (nephew of Altan's Mairéad). When they need any extra variety they turn said instruments into quasi-ukuleles (as on the opening track, the rollicking jig ‘Tá do Mhargadh Déanta’ or the pizzicato-driven ‘The March of the Mín na Toiteán Bull’). Or they hark back to the drones of the uilleann pipes – and especially the duet playing of the travelling Doherty players – as heard on a glorious pair of versions of ‘Shoe the Donkey’, which also features rhythmic accentuation via finger-taps on the instrument itself.

The tunes (particularly ‘John Whorskey's’ polkas and ‘Eddie O'Gara's’ waltz) hum with a thrilling resonance only heard from the most adept musicians. Though they are ever cocking one ear to the past, they're keen to experiment too: for instance, by combining in a set an unusual version of ‘The Cameronian’ reel with an invigorating rendition of Néillidh Boyle's ‘The Moving Clouds’, which offers the tune new insight by setting it a tone lower than the norm. And, like Néillidh's clouds, you'll be energised too by one of the finest albums to emerge from Ireland in the last decade.