Nicky Ryan, producer of Enya, has died

Hot Press is very sad to have learned this morning of the death of the great Irish producer, Nicky Ryan.

Nicky was the brilliant mastermind who crafted the sound of Enya, guiding the Donegal singer to global superstardom alongside his partner and song lyricist, Roma Ryan.

“We are absolutely devastated,” a family member told Hot Press this morning.

Hot Press understands that Nicky had gone into hospital for tests, but there were sudden complications.

“This is a completely shocking loss of one of Ireland’s all-time greats,” Hot Press editor Niall Stokes said. “I loved Nicky and the great maverick strain that he had in his approach to life and to music. I met him first back when he was the live sound engineer with Planxty – and you could tell from those gigs that he had something special. His attention to detail was amazing.

“He and Roma had a great rapport with the Hot Press gang, through the Clannad years, and then when he began the Enya project with Enya herself and Roma. For me, it was one of the truly special moments in Irish music when the vision that they shared came good so spectacularly with the release of the Watermark album – which of course contained the world-beating No.1 single ‘Orinoco Flow’. I was thrilled for Nicky, Roma and Enya because they were so strongly motivated by the desire to make great music, unconstrained by any kind if commercial considerations.

"It took three people to achieve the unprecedented success that Enya has enjoyed – but throughout her extraordinary career, Nicky’s guiding hand behind the control desk was of absolutely central importance. I remember comparing his work to the famous Phil Spector Wall of Sound – and that still makes sense to me. Nicky knew how to build something epic while still retaining the delicacy, and the spirituality, that define Enya’s body of work.

“To say that Nicky is a huge loss to Irish music’s a massive understatement. But he will also be missed hugely by those who knew him personally. He was great company and had a worked sense of humour. Ultimately, I think we can say that he was a great man, who liked for the most part to stay in the background. But I will regret forever that there will be no more calls and no more conversations with a man I loved – and respected enormously."

Nicky Ryan’s involvement in Irish music went back to the late ’60s when he worked as a sound engineer with various Dublin beat groups. A stint as soundman with Planxty followed, before he became manager of Clannad, in partnership with Roma Ryan. The producer of a number of fine albums with the band, and their live sound engineer and mentor, Nicky was instrumental in bringing the latest O Bhraonáin talent, Enya, into the group towards the end of the 1970s. A split followed, with Nicky, Roma and Enya on one side and the rest of Clannad on the other.

However, the Ryans had a 16-track studio fitted out in their back garden and it was used to forge the uniquely atmospheric Ryan/Enya sound. With the support of film producer David Puttnam first, and subsequently Rob Dickins at Warner Brothers, the Enya phenomenon was born, with Nicky as producer, Roma as lyricist and the two sharing managerial duties. Since the remarkable success of Enya’s Warners debut Watermark, she has sold over 80 million albums worldwide, and won a plethora of industry awards.

Enya's A Day Without Rain, released in 2000, became her biggest album to date, going to No.2 in the US charts and selling 15 million copies there. One of the standouts, ‘Only Time’, was used as background music to the harrowing images transmitted on TV in the wake of September 11. 2005’s Amaranthine went platinum in the US and won a Grammy in 2007 as Best New Age album, with Nicky Ryan also picking up a collection of Grammys for production.

Enya made her long-awaited return in 2015, releasing eighth album Dark Sky Island. It received rave reviews and went Top 10 in Ireland, Australia, the US and across Europe. It also hit No. 4 in the UK, Enya's highest chart position there since 1991.

Nicky Ryan was at the heart of Enya’s sound from day one, creating with Enya and Roma, some of the most important and influential Irish music of the past 50 years.

Nicky is survived by his partner Roma Ryan and by his daughters Persia and Ebony.

A humanist ceremony to celebrate his life will take place on Monday, with full details to be confirmed shortly.

• Keep an eye on hotpress.com for further updates.