Christine Tobin – Returning Weather

€15 – Dolan’s Upstairs 
Tickets

Thur, March 2 2023
Doors 20:30, Gig 21:15

Christine Tobin – vocals & spoken word and composition
Cora Venus Lunny – violin & viola,
David Power – uilleann pipes & whistles,
Phil Robson – guitar & electronics
Steve Hamilton – piano

Returning Weather is the latest work and twelfth album release from Dublin born vocalist and songwriter Christine Tobin. She is celebrated for her versatile, nonconformist musical spirit and golden voice. “…a 24-carat voice”, The Guardian. After leaving Dublin to attend the Guildhall School of Music, she became an integral part of the creative music scene in London and later in New York City, which she lived in from 2015-2020 before returning home to Ireland.

Her accolades include a BASCA British Composer Award; an Edinburgh Festival ‘Herald Angel Award’; ‘Jazz Vocalist of the Year’ at the Parliamentary Jazz Awards and ‘Best Vocalist’ at the BBC Jazz Awards. Returning Weather imaginatively weaves song, spoken word, visual effects and a stellar group of musicians from diverse disciplines together, creating a multi-dimensional soundworld which blends influences from folk, 20th-century art song and jazz. It charts a journey which is part homecoming, part memoir, inspired by Christine’s return to Ireland after many years abroad and explores themes of finding home, dwelling and landscape, reconnecting with a cultural background, reshaping a sense of identity and belonging. The songs are set in the countryside around Frenchpark, Boyle and Ballaghaderreen. There are many songs of leaving and farewell, this is the music of homecoming and return!

She was commissioned to write this evocative new song cycle by The Dock Arts Centre, with an Arts Council, Music Commissions Award. “A masterclass in songcraft” BBC Music Magazine. Line-up: Christine Tobin (voice and spoken word), Cora Venus Lunny (violin and viola), is an improvising and composing musician with a classical lineage and decades of professional experience in contemporary classical, improvised, recorded and folk musics. David Power (uilleann pipes) is a soloist who also plays in duos with fiddlers Willie Kelly and Martin Hayes, with harpist Triona Marshall & in collaborations with Edges of Light, Masters of Tradition, baroque ensemble Camerata Kilkenny, organist/harpsichordist Malcolm Proud & composer Kevin Volans. Phil Robson (guitar and electronics) is acclaimed as one of the world’s leading jazz guitarists. He has led bands with Mark Turner, Dave Liebman, Billy Hart & others, played with Vince Mendoza, BBC Big Band), Steve Hamilton (piano) is one of Europe’s most creative and experienced contemporary pianists, long-term member of US drum legend Billy Cobham’s band, (Bill Bruford’s Earthworks, Joe Lovano).

“It’s a tribute to the quality of Tobin’s writing that there are no weak spots in this excellent collection… There’s a thrilling, dark timbre to Tobin’s voice that moves you like no other…a 24-carat voice”.
-The Guardian

“What sets her apart is her intensity and the sheer beauty of her voice, a deep soulful thing that she seems to summon from somewhere deep inside…”
– Time Out Magazine

“Tobin has followed a studiously personal path as a singer and songwriter that has won her the kind of accolades bestowed on only a few. This rare and thoroughly personal artist is, a one-off.”
– The Irish Times

“A masterclass in songcraft.”
– BBC Music Magazine

“The Voice is a killer”.
– fRoots Magazine

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