Christine Tobin - Returning Weather (2023) [Hi-Res]

Returning Weather is the latest work from Dublin born, multi-award-winning vocalist and songwriter Christine Tobin. Celebrated for her versatility and nonconformist musical spirit, Returning Weather imaginatively weaves song, spoken word and a stellar group of musicians from diverse disciplines together, creating a multi-dimensional sound-world which blends influences from folk, 20th-century art song and jazz.

While the live shows expand upon the material with additional spoken word passages and visual effects, the album is a concise collection of nine compositions. It charts a journey which is part homecoming, part memoir, inspired by Christine's return to Ireland after many years abroad and explores themes of finding home, dwelling and landscape, reconnecting with a cultural background, reshaping a sense of identity and belonging.

The songs are set in the countryside around Frenchpark, Boyle and Ballaghadereen. There are many songs of leaving and farewell, this is the music of homecoming and return. She was commissioned to write this evocative new song cycle by The Dock Arts Centre, with an Arts Council, Music Commissions Award.

Christine Tobin: voice
Cora Venus Lunny: violin & viola
David Power: uilleann pipes & whistles
Phil Robson: guitar & electronics
Steve Hamilton: piano