VARIOUS ARTISTS: “The Sanctuary Sessions” (Cruise’s)

No matter how sophisticated it may have become in form, technique, and expression, one of Irish music’s great strengths has been ‘the session’, the informal gathering of musicians in pubs or at Fleadhanna, where friendships are made and renewed, where styles are interfaced – sometimes uneasily – and various liquid potations are consumed in some quantity.

Such a gathering has two other important subsidiary functions, in that the music is freed from the need to apply rigid formal structures to it; also the session by its definition means that tunes, whether regularly played or rarely heard, will be passed on to others, thus further perpetuating the tradition.

Judged by those, and indeed other applicable criteria, the Sanctuary Sessions is as fine an example as you’d wish to hear of the bounce, integrity and vibrancy of Irish music. Some sixteen musicians all involved, both solo and in various combinations and the full emotional range of material is covered, from the assertive vocals of Eimear Mongovan and Séan Tyrrell to the full ‘nyaah’ of the Sanctuary Céili Band.

Damn near every track’s a gem. File under ‘repeat play’. Often.

• Oliver P. Sweeney