Lorcan Mac Mathuna

Lorcán Mac Mathúna is a shaman of Sean-Nós [Old-Style Gaelic singing], who conjures a world of intense emotions coloured by mythology and legend. His voice will “make you believe in ghosts,” and his songs will bring you through time to witness tales of old Celtic romance and adventure; and experience an oral art of storytelling that stretches from the recent past to the prehistoric.

His work and collaborations has included arrangements based on airs in the oral tradition; contemporary composition; writing collaborations and performances; improvisational and electronic music: and compositional theory development.

An attendee at the premier performance of Lorcán’s musical interpretation of the ancient Celtic epic, The Táin, described the effect of his voice:
"Lorcan MacMathuna gathers from the air something which is older than the Tain - ageless, primaeval and haunting. He has caught and manifest for us a sound which is fundamental; which has existed since men and women first sang - sang to express what they felt and what they knew to be true. It is the music of mythology - all the cadences of history and prehistory residing in one man's voice. It calls to the soul. And the soul answers. And we are privileged to listen and to hear in our own blood and in the fibres of our understanding."