Carrantuohill at Łykend: Celtic roots and the folk sound of the vinyl album “25”

Join us at Łykend on 6 February for Carrantuohill's concert marking the release of the vinyl album ‘25’. Their latest production, “25”, is the Polish music market's first folk album issued on vinyl.

CARRANTUOHILL have been together since 1987. They perform traditional Celtic music from Ireland and Scotland as well as their own arrangements based on “Celtic roots”. They use a highly characteristic range of instruments — violin, uilleann pipes, bouzuki, cittern, bodhran, flutes, tin whistles, accordion, mandolin and acoustic guitar — expanding the sound with percussion, keyboards and bass guitar.

CARRANTUOHILL have visited IRELAND many times. In 1994, they attended the South Sligo Summer School music workshops in Sligo, led by leading experts and performers of Irish music. In 1997, 1999 and 2004, they performed at one of Ireland’s largest festivals, Cork Folk Festival, as well as the famous Fox`s Pub and St`Anns Church in Dublin, among other venues. Their Irish concerts also included Galway and, in July 2005, one of the largest festivals, Dancing with Lunasa, at the picturesque castle in Kinnitty. Many of the band’s videos were also filmed in Ireland.

In 1998, CARRANTUOHILL performed in the United States at Czesław Miłosz’s personal invitation, providing music for the International Poetry Festival at Claremont McKenna College in California.

Since 2004, the band have been guests at ‘Roches de Celtiques’ in Rochetaillée, France. They have also had the opportunity to perform in Lyon, Chambles, St Etienne, St Victor, Villard-de-Lans and Caloire.

In 2007, the band received Poland's most prestigious recording industry award, FRYDERYK 2006, for Ethno-Folk Album of the Year with “SESSION NATURAL IRISH & JAZZ”. CARRANTUOHILL have so far performed almost 2000 concerts in Poland and abroad.

CARRANTUOHILL have shared many performances with acclaimed artists. In 1997, they toured with Scotland’s The Battlefield Band. They have also appeared with Maire Breatnach, Sands Family, Deaf Shepheard, Geraldine McGowan & Friends and Midnigth Court. They shared a stage with Irish uilleann-pipe virtuoso Liam O`Flynn and leading guitarist Arty McGlyn. They met the legendary Jackie Daly in Cork, Ireland, and shared Kinnitty’s stage with the outstanding Donall Lunny and John Carty.

Another special guest was Midge URE (formerly of Ultravox and a creator of LIVE AID), who graced the INIS album launch concert at Warsaw’s Congress Hall.

Polish artists with whom CARRANTUOHILL have collaborated include Anna Maria JOPEK, Anita LIPNICKA, FIOLKA Najdenowicz, Stanisław SOJKA, Paweł KUKIZ, Kuba BADACH, Robert KASPRZYCKI, Urszula DUDZIAK, Wojciech KAROLAK, Tomasz SZUKALSKI, Marek RADULI, Krzysztof ŚCIERAŃSKI, Bernard MASELI and the ŚLĄSK Song and Dance Ensemble.

After meeting the band several times, Irish poet and 1995 Nobel laureate Seamus Heaney remarked: “…I unexpectedly felt at home on meeting Carrantuohill, Polish musicians playing Irish jigs and reels with such style and roguishness that even the Irish could not have done it better.”

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