Friday / Dé hAoine
Adrian Crowley with Support Bren Berry
Agus ainm in airde aige de bharr a mháistreacht ar cheird na scéalaíochta, is léir go bhfuil inspioráid agus cruthaitheacht gan teora i gceol Adrian Crowley.
Adrian Crowley is an award-winning songwriter, singer and composer who has, in over two decades, created a deeply affecting body of work. The Dublin-based artist is noted as having a uniquely dark poetic sensibility and an arrestingly resonant voice. His songs have led him to being described as a master storyteller and the rich tapestry of his expansive recorded output is proof that he is an endlessly inspired and inspiring artist. ‘Like a gothic Leonard Cohen – leaving you aching for more.’ UNCUT
Bren Berry, longtime concert promoter and former Revelino guitarist, returned to music with his debut solo album In Hope Our Stars Align, released on Jan 31st, 2025. Featuring a mix of heartfelt love letters and protest songs, the album showcases his rich, contemplative songwriting, agus ionsparáid á fháil aige ó fhilíocht na hÉireann agus an saol atá caite aige ag gabháil don gceol.
“Bren’s voice is like a hug” DAMIEN DEMPSEY
Adrian Crowley
Adrian Crowley Is an award-winning songwriter, singer, and composer who has, in over two decades, created a deeply affecting body of
Ar nós scata ceoltóirí, Adrian Crowley doesn’t know where his songs come from. But he knows how he felt each time one was born: a sense of release. Guided by instinct and catharsis, he did not plan a collection. And yet, the songs feel as if they were always meant to be together. I guess nowadays they call this a mood but, in my day, it was called a vibe. A cosmic vibe, sometimes. Réalta sa spéir, ag siúl tríd na gcoillte, the merciless dawns, an existential crush guided by a voice so calm and yet so sad, at the same time soothing and broken.
Is é seo an 10ú albam ag Crowley: an achievement number and maybe even a career high, but the music doesn’t bother with that. They are just great songs. His music has been described as indie folk but of course that’s just lazy. Crowley is a songwriter and a poet. Here, also, he is in the company of John Parish, who is always more than a producer. He’s been present in the beautiful ‘The Watchful Eye Of The Stars’(2021) and they’d met in the ‘90s. They weren’t in touch again for many years until a mutual friend, Nadine Khouri asked Crowley to contribute backing vocals to her album that she was making with John. Is as san a tháinig an comhoibriú. Nadine Khouri is here too, in backing vocals for Adrian now, and her mysterious voice makes it all sound so rounded but not perfect, like stones in the riverbed.
‘Measure of Joy’ is a nocturnal album. Not in the usual commonplace sense of dark and moody though it can be. The night is present in the sounds that can only be noticed when most things rest. In the lost transmission and the ghost lips that talk on the phone over sleepy jazz. In the violas and violins during a delicious visit to the cemetery in ‘Cherry Blossom Soft Confetti’, a song that is a eulogy and a party. In that love that doesn’t speak in the pensive ‘Lost at Last’, the song that opens the record, or in ‘Tangled’, a tune carried by the clarinet played by Crowley, where the narrator sings “I could free myself/ from the dark tendrils that cling to me/If I didn’t find them so exquisite”.
Mariana Enríquez- Autumn 2024
-Like a gothic Leonard Cohen – leaving you aching for more. UNCUT
https://www.adriancrowley.com/
https://youtu.be/t55Ktyb2c1w?feature=shared
Bren Berry
Bren Berry released his debut solo album “In Hope Our Stars Align” ar an 31ú Eanáir, 2025. The twelve songs on the album cover personal reflections on family, friendship, home, love, resilience, music and creativity agus aghaidh á thabhairt aige ar chuid de ghéarchéimeanna sóisialta agus polaitiúla na linne seo.
“I think of the album as a collection of love letters and protest songs which are layered with hope and an intentional sense of positivity. The album title is taken from the song Fire Drill and is inspired by Seamus Heaney’s lines “hope and history rhyme” and “hope for a great sea- change” from TheCure At Troy.”
“In Hope Our StarsAlign” includes a string of glorious big-hearted singles including “Bullet Proof”, “WinterSong,” “Hairpin Bends,” “Beautiful Losers,” “Come Alive,” “Turn On YourRadio” and “Knives (Heavy Metal Rain)” – all of which have lit up the Irish airwaves with glistening choruses, addictive riffs, and a rare contemplative soulfulness.
Bren Berry has worked as a concert promoter at Aiken Promotions and Vicar St since 1998 and hung up his guitars when his band Revelino broke up in 2001. He picked up his guitars again during lockdown and started writing songs i ndiaidh dó freastal ar chúrsa scríbhneoireachta cruthaithí sa bhliain 2021. “Song writing has always been an elusive mystery to me, but I finally broke the code on Bob Dylan’s 80th birthday. I decided that, rather than murdering one of his songs, I would honour the occasion by trying to finally crack the song writing code. Something told me to drop the register of my voice, and I found my voice in every sense of the word and wrote my first complete song Black Satellite. I wrote around twenty songs over the following eighteen months, and I have no doubt that being surrounded by so many amazing musicians and so many great people in the music and arts industry in Ireland has resulted in an osmosis of some kind that has led to this amazing creative breakthrough for me.”
“Bren’s voice is like a hug” – Damien Dempsey
“One of the albums of the year” Tom Dunne, Newstalk
“A stone-cold classic.” Ralph McLean, BBC Radio Ulster
“Magnificent…beautiful production.” Philip King, South Wind Blows
