STEVE COONEY

For forty years he has accompanied the greatest: Altan, The Chieftains, Clannad, Sharon Shannon and he has played on more than sixty albums. He is known to have developed a particular style on the guitar, based on a dishevelled and very percussive rhythm. As the album recorded in 97 with accordion player from Kerry, Séamus Begley.

Yet in forty years never a single solo album. This is the challenge he had set himself and he has just completed the recording of a real musical gem, a hundred leagues away from his usual style. Ceol Ársa Cláirsí is a subtle collection of tunes originally composed for the harp during the 17th and 18th centuries. To do this album, Steve Cooney went to the library of Queens University in Belfast to dig up a little treasure, Edward Bunting's manuscripts, to bring to light tunes played more than two centuries ago.

Included are classic harp pieces by such famous composers as Turlough O'Carolan, Thomas Conlan, Ruaidhrí Dall Ó Cathain and Con Lyons. And we recognize several Irish standards: Eleanor Plunkett, Tabhair Dom Do Lámh, Sí Beag Sí Mór or Caidé Sin Don Té Sin. Transposing tunes composed specifically for the harp to the six-string guitar borders on perfection. Steve Cooney succeeds in this feat, creating here a collection of finely chiselled miniatures for both metal-string and nylon-string guitars. Steve plucks the strings with his fingers like a harpist does. And the result is delicate and spider-like.

Although the guitar is the only instrument used on this album, no boredom. Everything is played with mastery and delicacy. A real success.

Autoproduit - www.stevecooneymusic.com