EILEEN IVERS
Scatter the Light.
Philippe Cousin
It's been a long time since I've talked to you about Eileen Ivers; since her album An Nollaig over 10 years ago. Since then, however, she has continued to produce albums, and here she offers us her seventh opus, Scatter the Light.
Eileen is an American violinist born in New York to parents of Irish descent. Having spent all her summers in Ireland as a child, it was only natural that at the age of nine she began studying the fiddle with an Irish teacher. A few years later, she was the founder of the women's band Cherish The Ladies. Then she accompanied the Chieftains for a while and in 1995 she joined the Riverdance troupe.
Awarded numerous prizes throughout her teenage years and her already long career, she has established herself in the USA as one of the most eminent fiddlers in the Irish tradition. Described by the New York Times as the Jimmy Hendrix of fiddling, she has the ability to electrify audiences who flock to her concerts. But as a New Yorker, she was also immersed in the multicultural sounds that surrounded her in the Bronx. As a result, she has immersed herself in a wide variety of musical styles, the most notable of which is jazz, which has left a deep mark on her music.
Her new album reflects the positive aspects of life and humanity. The songs, almost all of them her own compositions, are inspired by her meditations on family, faith, loss of loved ones... When Eileen and the four musicians who accompany her scatter the light to the rhythm of the eleven tracks, they bring the spectre of dance into an album that takes an eclectic path based on her original compositions.
While it's impossible to escape her Irish roots, Eileen is not one to stick to tradition and her open-mindedness is on full display here with more than a hint of jazzy. Listening to Chase The Blues Away, a hybrid of Irish reel and world music, one is riveted by the mark made by the fiddle. And when you dive into the melodic lines of Gratitude, you sink into a dream in which the aerial accordion blends with the pizzicato of the fiddle. In passing, we can recognize a negro spiritual on Children Go. Matthew Mancuso and Caitlin Maloney perform some songs with great energy. Finally, Road Trip is a clever mix of Irish music and funk. Not in the register of traditional Irish music, this original album will allow you to (re)discover a brilliant artist.
Musical Bridge MBI-20-001 - www.eileenivers.com