The Gloaming

The Gloaming draw on Irish traditional structures while weaving in strands of indie rock, post-rock, slowcore, and contemporary classical composition, thereby reshaping Celtic music for present-day listeners. The ensemble grants several of Ireland’s foremost folk practitioners an outlet for collective exploration, and their efforts have cultivated a worldwide audience. Their measured yet dynamically charged aesthetic first appeared on the self-titled debut album issued in 2014, after which the musicians have continued to sharpen their method, achieving remarkable lucidity and purpose on the 2019 release The Gloaming 3.

The project originated in 2011 in Rosemount, County Westmeath, uniting six-time All-Ireland Fiddle Champion Martin Hayes, folk-rock guitarist Dennis Cahill, Hardanger fiddle player Caoimhín Ó Raghallaigh, producer and pianist Thomas Bartlett (known as Doveman), and sean-nós singer Iarla Ó Lionáird, whose prior contributions include work with worldbeat icons Afro-Celt Sound System. By merging longstanding Irish forms with rock and contemporary classical touches and featuring Ó Lionáird’s vocals entirely in Irish, the group earned enthusiastic praise and multiple honors for the eponymous debut album they placed on Peter Gabriel’s Real World Records in 2013.

Bartlett, already recognized for productions with indie rock acts such as the National and St. Vincent, guided the sessions that began with traditional Irish material and then enriched it through pop and rock vocal approaches alongside luminous piano textures of a post-classical character. That recording received the 2014 Meteor Choice Prize for Irish Album of the Year, prevailing over entries from U2, Sinéad O’Connor, and Damien Rice. The musicians subsequently traveled extensively, appearing at festivals including Womad and filling London’s Barbican arts center. Their second album, 2, arrived in 2016, probing deeper into tradition while reinforcing their distinctive language through understated post-rock shading. The immediacy of their concerts was captured on the 2018 album Live at the NCH. One year later they issued their third studio album, The Gloaming 3, again produced by Bartlett and engineered by Patrick Dillett.