MICHAEL McGOLDRICK

Michael, one of the greatest flute players, returns to us eight years after Aurora with ARC, an acronym formed by the initials of his own children's first names. His fifth solo album since his debut more than twenty years ago.

Michael is a brilliant musician who writes the vast majority of the album's twenty-five tracks. He too has been able to surround himself with the best, more than twenty musicians with whom he has been playing for many years. With Flook - Ed Boyd, John Joe Kelly, Capercaillie - D. Shaw, E. Vernal, J. MacKintosh, Manus Lunny, and many others.

The release of a new album by M.McGoldrick is always an event that attracts the public's attention. On ARC, we find a cohesion and warmth that are significant for an aerial and powerful game.

He is one of these rare musicians who has developed both energy and a tenderness of soul perceptible in the least of his compositions. If passion is needed, he delivers music that burns. If it is a question of captivating the dancers, he communicates an implacable rhythm to them.

From the first track Five and Drive, which innocently begins with a piano, drums and a discreet bass, and quickly transforms into a clear and captivating melody with jazz connotations, to the last track Bill Malley's Barndance, which began soberly on flute and guitar, then joined by fiddle and harmonium, giving it an intense majesty, through songs like Wassalou River or Bakanoba with warm West African influences, there is no rest for this musician's talent.

Tradition, world music, jazz, Michael McGoldrick does not refrain from making any incursions into the different types of music. A mixed music if ever there was one, that of this brilliant flautist is still within everyone's reach.

Vertical VERTCD111 - www.verticalrecords.co.uk