THE IRISH TIMES
ROOTS/TRADITIONAL
Hector Zazou: “Lights In The Dark”In keeping with “ambient”
remixes of Gregorian choirs and medieval nuns, Hector Zazou puts together this
catchy, spaced-out “journey to the source of sacred Irish song”. The
Passion laments, hymn-poems and old Donegal carols are eerily traditional, suspend
in a mist of echoe, loops and samples; and accompanied by stone riffs on harp,
oud, zither, hurdy-gurdy, ocarina (Carlos Nunez) and Mark Isham’s heavenly
trumpets. The three main singers have powerful moments: Breda Mayock on Caoineadh
na dTrí Muire; Katie McMahon’s Seacht Suailce na Maighdine Muire
and the almost erotic wake-song Dán Na Marbh sung-whispered by Lasairfhíona
Ní Chonaola. It puts me in mind if Peadar Ó Riada, Iarla Ó
Lionáird and even Máire Brennan: native choirs, the mix of pagan
and Christian folk religion in an intimate, eccentric, electronic chill-out. Works
well.
Mic Moroney