The Windy Gap

Laurence Nugent, Chicago-born flute and whistle player is a man not given to stray notes or empty promises. The Windy Gap is the work of a musician who doesn’t need to prove anything, who tracks his route with the confidence of a traveller well used to the road, but still excited by the discoveries around every bend.

Jigs and reels dominate Nugent’s store of tunes, though his penchant for minimalism and deconstruction mean that there are old favourites here who have life breathed anew into their veins. Slow reels abound, imbued with a pensive air that’s echoed by the presence of Dennis Cahill on guitar and the occasional contributions of Martin Hayes’ fiddle.

The already gorgeous slow air that is ‘Bruach Na Carrige Báine’ is rendered anew by the partnering of low whistle and guitar, with Larry Gray’s bass underscoring the lonesomeness of the tune. Quick on its heels is an inspired duet with Kevin Henry, Sligo flautist of some renown on ‘The Ash Plant/The Merry Harriers/Galway Rambler’. The two flutes nimbly twist and shimmy along the tunelines, basking in the delights of one another’s playing.

Nugent has a love of the tradition that oozes from every pore of his playing, but his appetite for exploration isn’t dulled by any reverential tone. With a trio of reels, two of them well-established, and the last his own, (‘The Morning Dew/The Rising Sun/Sean Og’s’) he boldly strikes new ground, drawing in Jackie Moran with a rake of alternative percussion instruments including doumbek, djembe and shakers. And yet it all melds so effortlessly that you could swear that the djembe had Irish roots. If this isn’t an argument for Darwin’s evolutionary theory, what is?