Slow Moving Clouds – Kolmas – Album Review
by Killian Laher

Slow Moving Clouds is an Irish/Finnish crossover group, featuring Kevin Murphy on cello and haunting vocals, Aki on nyckelharpa and Ultan O’Brien on fiddle.  They’re also one of the more interesting groups on the Irish scene.  The opening track on their third album, Krohn, mixes traditional folk sounds with a classical atmosphere as O’Brien’s fiddle is joined by Murphy on cello and vocals. The following track, Pearl River has a more ‘trad’ feel with fiddle mixed with feverish fingerpicking.

The House Must Burn is moodier than what went before, quite close to Kevin Murphy’s material he released last year as Blind Stitch, Murphy singing over brooding swells of cello.  No One Is Coming is becalmed as O’Brien’s fiddle is joined by more cello, while The Manchurian Reel builds slowly into a haunting fiddle piece.  The Longest Lie is probably the most accessible track here, with a major key melody but it’s a bit incongruous here, a passionate but very straight ballad.  Later, O’Brien’s fiddle dominates An Driúillín while the final track, Toisen Oma has Aki singing in Finnish over a drone.

This may be their finest album yet.  There are other artists ploughing a similar furrow with a higher profile, but don’t let the lack of name recognition put you off checking this one out.

The House Must Burn