Dulra
Artist Details Caitríona O'Leary and DúlraCategory: Ensembles
This unique ensemble is made up of musicians from both Irish traditional and early music genres. It performs authentic Irish music from both the oral tradition and from 17th and 18th century sources. Photo - Hanno Meier
BiographySinger Caitríona O'Leary formed Dúlra in 1998 to perform Irish song in a new way. Using her performance experience of medieval music, she has applied many of its principles to her own native music. The result is a shimmering liquescence of melody, unhindered by a rigid tempo or conventional harmony, structured, rather, on the rhythm of the Irish language and the flow of the modal line. The stark simplicity of this delicately floating melodic line is enhanced by the uncluttered accompaniment by the distinguished instrumentalists of Dúlra.
BIOGRAPHY
Dúlra, is one of Ireland’s most exciting and groundbreaking Traditional music bands. Dúlra brings to the world stage an exotic and powerful new dynamic for Traditional Irish song. Sources from the renaissance to the present day create the soundscape for a unique and compelling approach to Traditional Irish music.
Dúlra’s powerful and hauntingly beautiful invocation of mythic sounds have thrilled audiences in concerts from Paris to Zagreb and their recordings for BMG Deutsche Harmonia Mundi and EMI Virgin Classic have won international praise. In January 2010 Dúlra recorded two new albums for Heresy Records, Sleepsongs a CD of Irish lullabies and Ecstasy a CD of Irish songs of unbridled joy. Caitríona O’Leary and Dúlra present three shows: “We brought the Summer along with us”, “To Love and Lament” and “Ecstasy, Irish songs of Joy”. All programmes feature songs and instrumental dances from 17th and 18th century sources and from the living, orally-transmitted traditional repertoire. Dúlra is the Irish for "elements" and the name expresses the group's commitment to peeling away cluttering layers and finding the core of the music. Also evoked is green, budding nature, bursting with potential and life. Reviews
It was in [Caitriona O'Leary's] performance of Carolan’s lamentation for his dear friend MacCabe that O’Leary revealed a mastery of Irish singing, achieving Andrew Lawrence King’s ambition for the ensemble of taking the audience ‘on a journey- not just to a place, but also to a time.’
SHOW ALLJennifer Gall, The Canberra Times (May 2010)
REVIEWS
… sung with haunting grace by Caitríona O’Leary.
Steve Moffat, The North Shore Times (May 2010)
O’Leary sang two Gaelic love songs with a pure light soprano… Carolan’s Lamentation for Charles MacCabe proved a rich field of sensitivity and vocal flicks. Clive O’Connell, The Age (May 2010)
Singer Caitriona O’Leary has a voice free of modern operatic vibrato and projection… [she] created intense and pure sweet notes in Carolan’s Lamentation for his friend MacCabe. Peter McCallum, Sydney Morning Herald (May 2010)
Caitriona O'Leary sang beautifully with lovely folk-like, Gaelic nuances... Gillian Wills, The Australian (May 2010)
“seamless, ethereal sean nós voice” The Irish Echo“It is singing a cappella that Caitríona O’Leary is at her most moving and where she best presents a very rare and very lovely repertoire.” Le Monde de la Musique
“[O’Leary’s] caressing tones…fit seamlessly into a consistent fabric of sound and expression” The Wall Street Journal “The gentle tones of Caitríona O’Leary were lovely” The Boston Globe “Do not hesitate for a second! Caitríona O’Leary has one of those incredibly crystalline voices that roots you to the spot” La Vie “downright angelic” St. Louis Post-Dispatch “Her singing style, clear articulation, and beautiful soprano voice – with or without accompaniment – are brought to great effect in these and all the songs in Dúil” Irish Music Magazine “I relished the flavors of the individual voices and characters…the focused calm of Caitríona O’Leary” Boston Bay Windows “Spreading a poignant pall over the proceedings, O’Leary’s lamenting voice rose and fell flawlessly, entrancing the audience with heart-wrenching songs.” The Irish Echo “Vocal grace, majestic formal fluidity, from traditional Irish ballads to early music: a disc (Dúil, Irish Songs of Love and Nature), which unites tradition and sensuality” Geo “Here is a disc (Dúil, Irish Songs of Love and Nature) that revels in the joy of singing and of making music and the joy of being alive” La Marseillaise “Wonderful interpretation by Caitríona O’Leary and her band” Femme Actuelle “The clear voice, like a flowing river, and gracious silhouette, of Caitríona O’Leary has also accompanied the ensemble Sequentia and the Harp Consort” Valeurs Actuelles “[O’Leary] creates an elegiac atmosphere with her clear voice and authentic Gaelic pronunciation” The Plain Dealer DiscographyCaitríona O'Leary and Dúlra
DISCOGRAPHY
Caitríona O'Leary and Dúlra
 Dúil, Irish Songs of Love and Nature Catalogue # 7243 45363 28 1999 EMI / Virgin Classics This is the debut album by Caitríona O'Leary and Dúlra. The songs are all on the theme of love and nature and all come from both living, traditional sources as well as 17th and 18th century sources. All in their original Irish, these songs reflect a deep affinity with the land and its creatures and the seasons: praising the characters of the different trees, reading omens in the behaviour of the elements, longing for the leafy summer, comparing the beloved to the birds, the flowers, the stars, and shunning solicitous invitations to the shady woods. The word dúil means a creature or living thing. It also means desire, longing, and hope. |
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