Cillian Vallely - The Raven's Rock (2016)

This solo album from Lúnasa's Cillian Vallely has been a long time coming. Happily, the wait has been worth it. The Raven's Rock finds the virtuoso uilleann piper and whistle player in fine form, effortlessly elegant and exciting. There are contrasts aplenty, the blending of the keening Breton air ‘A la Porte à Marianne’ with Vallely's own ‘The Raven's Rock’ is altogether captivating, with pipes and drones affectingly abetted by low whistle and piano. No less so is the hushed intensity of ‘Port na bPúcaí’, an old Blasket Islands tune and a repertoire standard of the Donegal fiddler Tommy Peoples. There's a lively, lyrical vitality to Vallely's own brace of jigs, ‘Sinead Máire's’ and ‘Eimear's Shuffle’, framed by his brother Niall's ‘Nina's Jig’ and a bracing energy to the hornpipe ‘The Boys of Ballycastle’. He's ably backed by a cohort of musicians including his siblings Niall (concertina) and Caoimhin (piano), fiddler Jeremy Kittel, and the singing guitars of Sea Óg Graham, Ryan McGiver and Lúnasa colleague Paul Meehan.

It's to be hoped that the wait for Cillian Vallely's second solo outing will not be as long as it was for this very accomplished debut.