Brian Finnegan: Flutes and Whistles
Aidan O’Rourke: Fiddles
Ian Stephenson: Guitar and Double Bass
Jim Goodwin: Drums and Percussion
2010, the year of KAN, the seed of vision and dreams so revered in the Mayan tradition for it’s inherent power to flower through melody and harmony.
What better moment then than at Celtic Connections Festival Glasgow, January 2010, on the cusp of a new decade, to unveil this thrilling new union between four of the brightest stars in music.
Brian Finnegan and Aidan O’Rourke, front men with two of the most revered bands ever to have thrilled the folk scene, BBC Award winning Flook and Lau, join forces with Ian Stephenson on guitar and Jim Goodwin on drums to create an enthralling and beautiful new sound. Brian and Aidan are an irresistible partnership, both men with a style that is fiercely unique; Brian’s grounded in the Irish tradition, Aidan’s in the Scottish, both highly accomplished improvisers and celebrated composers with a brace of solo CDs each, and neither afraid to take risks and explore new sonic frontiers. Yorkshire guitarist and multi-instrumentalist Ian Stephenson, no stranger to BBC awards himself, with his band 422 and work with Kathryn Tickell and Chris Stout, is at the forefront of the new wave of rhythm accompanists, but it is his willingness to experiment and hone his own bass/funk style of play that makes this sonic whizkid such an exciting player. His teaming up with rhythm master Jim Goodwin, drummer and percussionist with the Halle and Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, has forged a formidable rhythm department, full of drive and imagination. Together, all four have a largely intuitive ability to journey into the heart and soul of a melody, to take it somewhere fresh and new... however old... and to take the listener with them.
As is often the way, the boys from KAN have been mates for years, meeting in the early days through their love for traditional music in its most natural of settings, the session - and then later, collaborating on various cross genre projects at home and abroad and guesting on one another’s records, never far off the radar of one another. No surprise that gravity would eventually draw them together and they would make their move as a band.
Even before their first record has been recorded, the supersonic buzz is out after two hard-hitting festival appearances at the William Kennedy Festival in Armagh and in Glasgow where they wowed a packed Classic Grand who had never even heard them before.
It is said that anything began in the year of KAN has magic at its back, and with time in the studio already planned it seems the future of trad looks set to swing.
"Terrifically tight... intensely lyrical... heavyweight rhythmic attack" The Scotsman