Nóirín Ní Riain

February 22 - 29, 1 9 9 6

**1/2 Nóirín Ní Riain

STÓR AMHRÁN

(Sounds True Audio)

Two strikes against this new release from angel-voiced Gaelic soprano Nóirín Ní Riain (Noreen O'Ryan in English): no lyrics, and, like her Gael-Linn chant album Vox de Nube, it's recorded at Glenstal Abbey in County Limerick. Gael-Linn managed to make Vox de Nube sharp-edged as well as reverberant; Stór Amhrán (it means "wealth of songs") is sabotaged by the abbey's acoustic, which here produces clouds of unknowing -- the words are a complete mystery. What's more, Gael-Linn provided texts in Latin, Gaelic, and English; Sounds True Audio gives you only synopses.

The program is described as "Mystical Songs" -- which might describe the "Ballymacoda Creed" and the many aisling ("vision") songs but hardly applies to a snappy number like "Cití na gCumann" ("Kitty of the Thousand Loves"). No matter, Ní Riain is always worth hearing -- whether singing or playing the tin whistle. But if you haven't got Vox de Nube, go after that first.

-- Jeffrey Gantz

(Nóirín Ní Riain appears at the First Parish Unitarian Universalist Church in Arlington this Saturday, February 24; call 641-2131.)