‘Moch’ new album by DLÙ, label ARC Music, in Peaceful Radio Show 1476
9 February 2022 Artists
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Where fiddlers are likely to be fine piano accompanists
and dancers to boot. DLÙ boasts a drummer who learned
tunes on the box from a piper father; an accordionist who
started out on drums; a fiddler who loves to sing. The interconnectedness of understanding of the music gives a
rhythmic drive to the melody and an intricate – and
sometimes delicate – handling of rhythm in perfect
understanding of the movement of the tune. And all of this is
underpinned by the innate rhythm, cadence and melody of
Gaelic, whether in song, or woven through the threads of
the instrumental music they make sing.
For young Gaels of my generation, being a young person
speaking Gaelic as a mother tongue was an often
lonely experience. As the great Glenuig piper Allan
MacDonald said to the first students of Scottish traditional
music at the RSAMD (now Royal Conservatoire of
Scotland), the greatest thing that the students had
been given as musicians in a minority culture was to
be a cohort. A family. A mutual support, friendship
and encouragement that let them and their music
make their mark on a world stage. The same can be
said of DLÙ, a friendship brought together within a
community of language, of music, of people. A family –
going back to Zach and Andrew meeting for the first time in
the cròileagan, the nursery.
“For us, Gaelic is a huge part of our identity and heritage.
It’s about who we are and where we come from, and
we would hate to see it lost, because when you lose a
language, you lose everything that goes with it: knowledge
and culture and history. To lose this music would be
catastrophic.”
BY MARY ANN KENNEDY
www.maryannkennedy.co.uk
Benno Veugen ARC Music, DLÙ, Moch, Peaceful Radio, Peaceful Radio Show