Piping Today
August/September 2008 Issue 35An alumnus of the vigorous Armagh Pipers Club, Tiarnan O Duinnchinn is a masterly uilleann piper, whose fineness of taste and technical accomplishment summon forth all the expressive magic in the music of his native Monaghan.
His partner, Stephanie Makem, has a voice that is at once delicate and striking - and their joint album,”Ceol is Piob”, is unpretensiously but exceptionally beautiful. The tracks shift back and forth, dance-like, with Stephanie Makem’s songs and Tiarnan O Duinnchinn’s piping, between gently moving songs and lively pipe reels, airs and love songs, Gaelic and English- and the listener’s attention is captured wholly by the soloist.
There is some elegantly balanced backing- Steve Cooney on guitars, bass and percussion, Paul Meehan on guitar and Fergal Murray on keyboards, and their playing serves simply to enhance the musical depths and contours of the soloists’ engaging presence.