Album Of The Week – Hò-rò ‘New Moon’
Written by celtic music radio on March 26, 2022
New Moon is the stirring new album from traditional powerhouse, seven-piece band Hò-rò, featuring delicate ballads and upbeat foot-stomping tunes.
With a largely newline-up, this is their third album and the emotional dial has certainly been turned up on their material.
Traditional music is at the heart of the group’s high octane and heartfelt sound, involving bagpipes, border pipes, accordion, fiddle and whistle with guitar, bass, keyboards and drums.
This instrumental mix is complemented by the unbeatable poetry of Gaelic song and the vivid storytelling of Scottish folk songs with songs and tunes from across the world, including traditional Gaelic pieces and self-composed tracks.
The first single, Isle Of Eigg, released on Wednesday 23rd March, is Robin Laing’s beautiful and serene ballad, brought to life through the vocals of Calum MacPhail and Hannah Macrae.
Hò-rò’s line-up now features Hannah on fiddle and vocals, Calum on accordion and vocals, Sean Cousins on guitar, Paul Martin on keys and electric guitar, Ally MacLean on pipes and whistles, bassist Calum MacQuarrie and drummer DC Macmillan. Matt Arnot can also be heard on drums on the album, which was recorded and mixed at Glo Worm Studios with Mànran’s Ross Saunders and it was mastered by Grammy-nominated Robin Schmidt.
Sean said: “Now feels like the perfect time to share the new music we have been working on for years. We are all coming out of a pretty dark period and we hope the new music brings a bit of light to people.
“This album feels different for us because there are a lot of big emotional and epic arrangements on it and I think it speaks to the amount of energy we have been storing up since the last record – it feels like a very cathartic moment in our catalogue.”
New Moon will be available to buy on CD, stream and download on all major digital platforms on Friday 22nd April.
The band – Danny Kyle Open Stage award winners at Celtic Connections in 2014 – will tour the album with live dates across Scotland in April and June, performing in Inverness, Aberdeen, Glasgow, Edinburgh and Fort William.
• SEAN and CALUM WILL BE CHATTING WITH LIZ CLARK – AUNTIE LIZ – ON THE ALBUM OF THE WEEK SHOW ON SATURDAY, MARCH 26 AT MIDDAY.
