Join us on this unique tour through today’s Irish folk music – a concert evening curated by Willie Stewart from the thrilling Irish indie label Nyahh Records. The concert is presented together with Final Descent.

“I started Nyahh Records because I kept hearing new music in Ireland that I was really excited about and wanted to work with, and that I thought deserved to reach more people. I find the quality of what’s coming out in Ireland right now to be amazing, and I want to help shine a light on it,” says Willie Stewart, the man behind the Irish label Nyahh Records. Now he has put together two different concert nights at Alice with exactly that purpose: to showcase some of the most interesting experimental Irish music of the moment.

All the artists you’ll experience across the two nights are affiliated with Nyahh Records. But what exactly is Nyahh? According to Willie Stewart, Nyahh refers to the innate soul of music. But also to something you can’t quite put your finger on. “I like that the Nyahh is unclassifiable,” he said in the same interview, “That’s how I would like the releases on the label to be as well.” Nyahh Records primarily releases experimental music and folk from Ireland. And on this evening, you can look forward to experiencing virtuosity on the fiddle, listen to the bouzouki, and be surrounded by atmospheric compositions with found recordings in them.

HEDGLING
Hedgling is a new duo of Natalia Beylis and Willie Stewart. Previously, they have played together in numerous bands including Woven Skull, Boneyard Witch and Divil A’ Bit. With Hedgling, they build on these collaborations to create a new musical sphere in which to explore the far reaches of their real and imagined surroundings. Their sound sways in the space between the familiar and the unknown parallel worlds that co-exist around, above and beneath us. Percussive constellations created from found objects, dissolving tape loops of creaking pump organ drones and recordings made in the bogs and woods around their home blend together to convey an intimate portrait of the world they co-inhabit.

Ultan O’Brien
Ultan O’Brien is a fiddle player and composer from the wilds of County Clare in the West of Ireland. Ultan is a performer as well as a regular at sessions all over Ireland and can be found by chance in any pub in Dublin, Cork or some remote village on the edge of nowhere, flying jigs and reels around the room. Ultan was reared in the rich tradition of Irish music which is so commonly found and heard in Co Clare, but he also delves deep into sound art and experimental music. He has often been heard in the back of a car after a few pints quoting lines from Alvin Lucier or speaking at length about improvisation and its place in modern Irish music. Ultan O’Brien is a fresh and vital player who has much to offer with his unique approach and technique to a tradition so old and ever ready for a subtle change every 100 years or so. 

Mohammad Syfkhan
Mohammad Syfkhan is a Kurdish/Syrian singer and bouzouki player. He began playing music in 1980 while he was in college studying nursing. When he got his degree in 1983, Mohammad moved to the city of Raqqa in Syria where he began working as a professional singer and started his own band, The Al-Rabie Band, which played concerts, parties, weddings and festivals all over Syria, and was a much sought-after group. Their live sets included Kurdish, Arabic, Turkish and some Western songs as well as Mohammad’s own original material.

Mohammad continued to play with his band while also working as a surgical nurse until the war broke out in 2011. This unfortunately brought tragedy to Mohammad’s family when one of his sons was killed by Isis thus threatening the lives of the rest of his family. His family had no choice but to leave their home and seek safety in Europe. Three of Mohammad’s sons resettled in Germany while Mohammad, his young daughter and wife were taken in by Ireland. Since then, Mohammad has used the language of music to integrate into the local community by playing at private parties and concerts.

Willie Stewart has curated two different concert evenings, and if you’d like to attend both, you’ll need to buy two separate tickets.