Iarla Ó Lionárd - Invisible Fields (RealWorld)

Despite a fleeting infatuation with the first Afro-Celt Sound System record, I (like a fickle teen) greeted their subsequent CDs with a diminishing sense of anticipation. So, finding my quarterly Penguin Eggs care package contained the latest CD from Afro-Celts singer Iarla Ó Lionárd, I admit to – what proved to be – a totally gratuitous rolling of the eyes. I was so wrong. This is a superb record. To call Ó Lionárd a Gaelic singer is tantamount to saying Bjork is an Icelandic singer – true in an elemental sense, but completely failing to his capture his artistry and complexity. Sonically and emotively, this record is as suggestive of Sigur Rós and post-Japan David Sylvian (perhaps more so) as it is of Ó Lionárd’s sean nos singing contemporaries. Invisible Fields is sparse, dark, enveloping and fully realized artistically – a mature artist for the post-adolescent listener.