LANKUM PERFORMING ‘FALSE LANKUM’ IN FULL

It may well have been the most striking trend of the past year: folk is totally back. Doing so in an exciting capacity. Think: Scotland’s Brìghde Chaimbeul (with her completely unique sound on small bagpipes), English collective Shovel Dance Collective (with their liberal take on British folk) or Scottish-Danish Clarissa Connelly who has just recently been signed by Warp(!).

However, top draw is Ireland’s Lankum whose latest album False Lankum was recently described by Mojo as “modern folk music’s own OK Computer”. The Guardian, Uncut as well as Loud & Quiet rightly torpedoed False Lankum to Album of the Year. The Guardian even situated Lankum between “late-period Portishead and Sunn O))) as much as The Watersons and their Irish ancestors Planxty.” De Volkskrant in a *****-review: “Op het meesterwerk ‘False Lankum’ krijgt antieke Ierse muziek een horrorachtig aura.”

In AB, Lankum will play their third issue and tour de force False Lankum in its entirety.

LANKUM CURATED NIGHT: ‘THE PLANET THAT YOU’RE ON’

Last year, Lankum curated an album for monthly mag Uncut entitled The Planet That You’re On. Frontman Ian Lynch: “It’s mostly just stuff we love. But hopefully with one eye on stuff that people might not have heard of. There’s loads of great Irish artists making a name right now. This is stuff that hasn’t poked its head above the parapet, so to speak. Hopefully it’ll be a little less obscure after the CD comes out.”

AB put its money where its mouth is and asked Lankum to curate an evening containing a handful of Irish acts that we on the mainland should definitely discover. The programme for this instalment will be announced later.

A Liveurope concert:

The first pan-European initiative supporting concert venues in their efforts to promote emerging European music.