Cloch ‘s Claa

Tr Phidan are a mutable collective of musicians who are geographically, culturally and mentally torn between Conamara Theas, Cathair Chorcaa, Ciarraa, Uabh Fhaila, Sligeach and Port Lirge, active in one form or another since 2019. The music they make, which to date has mostly been self-released, is of an ambitious breadth, embracing traditional Irish absurdity, jazz, folk and krautrock influences, whilst remaining tantalisingly beyond any one specific understanding of either the world around them or even themselves. More defined however, is their overall conceptual approach, focusing upon original Gaelic music and what lies beyond simply “conas at t2”. Cloch ‘s Claa (trans. Stone and Wall), their first record released by World of Echo, develops their established interests into more adventurous waters (and walls!) than ever. Based on the historical significance embedded into dry-stone walls, the album presents a satirical view of |ire’s relationship with her native tongue and the Gaeltacht (regions where Gaeilge – Irish Gaelic – remains the primary language). Constructed of ten tracks, each representative of a stone in a metaphorical stone-wall, Cloch ‘s Claa draws from styles of improvisation in Irish traditional music, exploring avenues of ornamentation and accompaniment in the tradition. As such, the arrangement changes in every performance, a new stone-wall articulated each time – the recording on this album represents just one such arrangement in one such performance. Inspired by Myles na gCopaleen’s An B|al Bocht, the wall comes to embody a variety of themes scattered across the landscape and psyche of na Gaeltachtaa – tokenism, housing, gentry politics, ribbon developments and so on. The result is a music expressive of regional styles in traditional music, krautrock, free jazz, post-rock, minimalism and drone presented in a way that feels instinctively fluid and reflective of a hushed existentialism from the west of Ireland.