Newest reviews at the top .

A review of Guidewires performing live at Dranouter Festival - Aug '11. From FolkRoddels in Belgium

Happily there was Guidewires . Much Irish traditional, but also own compositions, from concertina wonder Pádraig Rynne and from the Breton Sylvain Barrou who we know from Comas. Sylvain showed us he's not only one of the best flute players of his generation, but that he can handle the uilleann pipes pretty well. The violin celebrated her anniversary by coincidence and tour manager Patrick De Loecker put her to the fore. We forgot the heavy rains outside and the whole tent did go crazy for this quintet.

Full review can be seen here.

The Living Tradition - Aug '11

Guidewires II is the long-awaited first studio album from this all-star band. With some of Ireland and Brittany’s finest players; Pádraig Rynne (concertina); Sylvain Barou (flute); Tóla Custy (fiddle); Paul McSherry (guitar) and Karol Lynch (bouzouki), and it does not disappoint!

The music is a high-energy mix of Irish, Breton, Spanish and Greek tunes, most composed by the band members themselves. The recording was engineered by Karol Lynch and the artwork by Sylvain Barou – they are a talented bunch!

The band has invited some of their friends to guest on the album including Triona Ni Domhnaill (vocals and keyboards) and Breton band Gwerz bass player Alain Genty. Triona’s two songs (The Selkie and Mo Mhaire) come from the singing of her late brother Micheal and Daithi Sproule in the early 70’s. These songs are in contrast with the tune sets and add another dimension to the CD.

The arrangements are inventive and the musicianship superb. Pádraig Rynne’s excellent set of 3 slip jigs, Hats Off To Dod being a good example. Highly recommended!

Keith Whiddon
Read review from their website.

Philippe COUSIN – Le Peuple Breton/TRAD magazine, France - Aug '11.
"Trad Bravos!" which means it's an extraodinary album.

Sometimes a group can be tripped up by the release of their second CD. Will it build on the success generated by the debut album? Curiously GUIDEWIRES had first released a debut ‘LIVE’ CD. Their second album ‘11’ is therefore their first studio album. But the talent of these 5 virtuosos of Irish music was never in doubt. The second album even surpasses the first mercurial album.
When 4 Irish musicians mix it up with a talented Breton flutist, the result could only be a mix of diverse styles and influences. As a result one finds here tunes from the Irish, Scottish, Breton, Galician traditions and even from Crete. While several traditional pieces make an appearance, the majority of the tracks are original compositions by these 5 friends.
On this occasion, the group have enlisted the renowned talents of several maestros, such as the Irish singer Triona Ni Dhomhnaill who performs two songs borrowed from the repertoire of Clannad and Skara Brae. The album also features Erwan Hamon, Alain Genty (bass) and the American Mike Shimmin (percussion).

Among the tracks, one happily discovers As Crechas, an air from Jacky Molard and the track Ridee karma where the bombard of Erwan Hamon hits the spot. Elaiotado is a tune of Crete origin which brings a Mediterranean touch to the Irish style of GUIDEWIRES.

The group’s music is largely driven by the concertina of Padraig Rynne and the flute of Sylvian Barou. They will perform at the Festival de Cornouaille in Quimper this summer.

Review from BigFook in Italy - July '11

The onset of Guidewires was very abnormal. In 2009 the band releases its first album, this was not from the studio - in defiance of all logic from the music business - a live album. It is a risky choice as the winner and the album will prove a real success. How are we to repeat a win like that? The debut album seemed to have made it clear what the best approach for a group that has its roots in a musical tradition - Celtic - which by definition was created and developed in contexts "live". What happens if this freedom is limited to a few meters of a recording studio?

The result is "II", an album arranged and recorded in a studio in an excellent manner, able to involve the listener in a whirlwind of syncopated rhythms of traditional dances of the "lands of the North". Galicia, Brittany (France) and Ireland are the lands that inspired the music of this new work of the band, but these lands heavily influenced by Celtic culture, have additional sounds and instruments typical of the Greek tradition where the bouzouki flows, up to mingle in his dialogue with the fiddle and uilleann pipes. He decided nuanced brushstrokes of tradition with new and interesting elements of the composition ("The Mobile Candelabra", "Mercury Falling", "Hats Off To Tod"). Guidewires, textures typical of traditional Celtic music - which over time have had different evolutions depending on the geographic regions in which they have developed - they come together on this record which is a real journey with open eyes in boundless lands from high cliffs.

The light-heartedness and deep sense of belonging that would trigger tracks like "Eff Reels", "Caoimhin" or "King of the Scals" if performed in their natural context of a live, here change shape, becoming rich performances of elegance and imaginative power . In addition to compositions that appear to be real still images of unspoiled land, the album boasts two pearls that see the participation of Triona Ní Dhomhnaill (musician and singer, already in the Bothy Band and Nightnoise), an artist who has specialized over the years interpretation of songs in Gaelic, and that in this album, along with Guidewires, revisits one of the successes of Clannad, "Mo Mháire", and then pay back your voice to another highlight of the album, "The Selkie ". The band members Pádraig Rynne and Sylvain Barou - who continues to have rave reviews from the press - the best seems to be continuing its path characterized by mingling with the new tradition, in order to create a sound that would become their tract distinctive. "Guidewires" seem to be well hatched in the minds of musicians, now you just begin to weave new musical textures to create other "soundscapes".

Guidewires release second album

By Gerry Quinn – The Irish Examiner

Guidewires, the Irish/Breton traditional quintet may be an act that looks to the past at times for inspiration. Nevertheless, they’re a group that’s building a solid reputation in the here-an-now if their addictive second album 11 is anything to go by. Comprising, Clare men Tola Custy on fiddle, concertina player Pádraig Rynne and Karol Lynch on bouzouki, alongside Breton flautist and piper Sylvain Barou and Belfast guitarist Paul McSharry, the combo’s sophomore release is brimful of expertly crafted instrumentals, interspersed with two vocal arrangements, featuring guest singer Tríona Ní Dhomhnaill - she of The Bothy Band fame. Comprising of band members compositions for the most part, yet all the track on 11, are sturdily influenced and informed by the traditions of Ireland, Brittany and a number of the other Celtic nations. Always aware of their roots, Guidewires on this offering, encapsulate both the resilience of tradition and the possibilities of experimentation and progression.

Tola Custy expounds on the options open to the band from day one, when he says, “we were always trying to get in touch with musicians from other countries - especially Brittany, in Pádraig’s case. His love of Breton music is unquestionable. I suppose we were always curious, as you would be when you play another country’s music – how authentic is it? So with that curiosity in mind the obvious thing to do is to get down and dirty with say a Breton musician. And with Sylvian, I think he came from the other side. He’s got a huge passion for Irish music and I hope that I’m not insulting to any of the other amazing Breton flute players out there but I’d have to say from an Irish perspective, when I hear him play reels, it’s pretty authentic.”

The new album is a follow-up to debut, Guidewires Live, released in 2009 when the band was very much in an embryonic state. “ Our origins go back to when Pádraig, Tola and Paul were doing a trio gig in Belgium,” reveals the band’s youngest member and the engineer on their latest CD, Karol Lynch. “There, they met up with Sylvian and he was playing with a band called Comas. The lads had to do a collaboration at the end of the gig and they found out that they were all into the same sort of music,” he says. “We then got working with Karol and did a gig in Denmark,” adds Custy. “It was great because we never actually said, let’s form a band; but work just started coming in and it was Pádraig that eventually came up with the name, Guidewires.” The preparation for this new recording proved to be somewhat different to that of the group’s debut. “Because it was live, the first album was so easy,” claims Custy. “As a professional musician, all you have to do is prep for a live situation. But when you approach a studio album, then internally you really want to step up to the mark,” he says. “You want to make something with layers and atmosphere but you don’t want to over do it – there’s always that fear,” admits the talented fiddler. “We tried to keep it as light as possible in a recording sense,” interjects Lynch. “We didn’t want it pro-tooled, as Tola calls it. We didn’t want it absolutely perfect. But it does feel live I think. We didn’t do too many overdubs – we tried to do as many one-takes as possible,” he states.

This album was recorded and engineered by Lynch at his own studio in Ennis, making it more comfortable for the band members to concentrate on the job in hand. “It certainly made it easier for the Clare guys anyway,” quips Tola “ and it also meant that Karol was around this baby the most.” Though young in years, Lynch’s status as a studio engineer is on an upward curve. “I’ve been years learning the recording process,” he admits. “A few years ago I did a course in London and then I did an on-line course with Berklee College of Music in Boston. I learned an awful lot from that. Then I spent two weeks over at Peter Gabriel’s Real World Studios near Bath, mixing our first album. Marco Migliari who used to be Peter’s head engineer taught me a lot too,” confesses Lynch.

Right now Guidewires are mapping out a busy summer schedule with festival gigs booked in France, England, Belgium, Italy, Northern Spain and Finland, as well as some Irish dates that include the Half-Moon in Cork City on April 23rd and Cork X Southwest Festival in Skibbereen in June. This exceptional band take Irish music as its launching pad, to explore other similar, musical stratospheres. These guys are at the vanguard of Ireland’s (and Brittany’s) younger breed of talented, traditional musicians and they have certainly achieved an understanding of their own unique potential.

Alex Monaghan – Irish Music Magazine – July ‘11 See revuew on IMM website.

Padraig Rynne and Tola Custy on concertina and fiddle team up with Breton fluter fantastic, Sylvain Barou to provide the frontline of this young Irish band. Belfast guitarist, Paul McSherry and Doolin bouzouki boy wonder, Karol Lynch fill the backline. There was a live album in 2010, which was very well received, certainly by me. Now the boys have been in the studio, Triona Ní Dhomhnaill popped in for a couple of songs, and album number two presents more of the Guidewires hallmark mix: original tunes, a few compositions by modern composers from all over Europe, and some pure traditional material.

The lion’s share of composing credits goes to Padraig, with six new pieces, but all five core members have tunes here. Sylvain stresses the Breton aspect with Toonagh Ridée, and adds his high Breton bagpipes to the band’s sound. King of the Scals shows Paul’s composing talents on an offbeat slow reel and a typically Irish minurka (something between a minuet and a mazurka). Two of my favourite tracks are P’s Led Balloon, which combines compositions by everyone except Padraig, and Eff Reels which is straight Irish trad: Garret Barry’s, Hanley’s Tweed, and John Brennan’s. Triona’s two songs are a long slow version of the Scottish song The Selkie of Sule Skerry, and a sultry take on the Clannad favourite Mo Mhaire. The arrangements are gentle, sympathetic, with Triona’s distinctive vocals to the fore. On the instrumental side, Guidewires can slow the pace too: Tola’s tune Buoy M5 is a charming air, and Karol’s waltz Caoimhín sits in the soulful space between Celtic and Old Time. Padraig provides a cracking finale with his jaunty reel Mercury Falling.

All in all, this album lives up to the promise of Guidewires debut: here is a band who can follow the likes of Lúnasa and At First Light, who can keep the rad in trad, and take Irish music with them around the world.

Johannes Schiefner – Folker.
Read review in German.

Guidewires understandably scored points with their first release - a live recording. On this album they have evolved their fast-paced and fresh-sounding arrangements of modern Irish tunes in a congenial manner. The magnificent, sleek and "full bodied" game of the three lead instruments Fiddle (Tola Custy), concertina (Pádraig Rynne) and Flute (Sylvain Barou, contributing uilleann pipes and low whistle as well) is certainly at the top in the Irish Trad scene, on par with Lúnasa, to give one example.

Playful often turns to three accompanying voices and rhythmic interjections, the musical seasoning is definitely "hot". Congenial act accompanist Paul McSherry on guitar and bouzouki and mandolin Karol Lynch. A really infectious groove is the result that runs strictly by the variety of idiosyncratic, often his own compositions as well as the straight-and undertoned rhythms of the recording, which includes far more than "just" Jigs and Reels. The feet do not stop and listen to rock on! Triona Ní Dhomhnaill’s control is a treat - the legendary singer and Clavinet player from the Bothy Band - as a guest with a mature, deep, soft voice with two wonderful songs, of which especially the first, a ballad about the life of this remarkable Scottish "Selkies" (half man, half-seal) hunts a shower one after the other on the back. A staged-sounding arrangement with almost psychedelic touch - simply superb. .

A great album of modern Irish music that grows with each listen, and definitely belongs in the record shelves of Irish Trad connoisseurs!

Gig review: Guidewires

The Scotsman: link

Published Date: 25 January 2010
By Barry Gordon

STRATHCLYDE SUITE, ROYAL CONCERT HALL, GLASGOW
****

YOU have to wonder about a band who decide to release a live album as their debut offering. Case in point: Ireland's Guidewires. So polished and measured is their live performance, you only have to close your eyes and you'd swear you were listening to them on the latest hi-tech stereo.

This hairy bunch from the Emerald Isle aren't exactly a visual treat, either (no offence, boys), hence the emphasis here is on sound rather than jumping around like, say, those loonies, The Treacherous Orchestra for example. But that's not to say Karol Lynch (bouzouki), Tola Custy (fiddle), Padraig Rynne (concertina), Paul McSherry (guitar) and Breton flautist Sylvain Barou don't indulge in a bit of craic, either – they do.

With tunes given such quirky titles as Everyone Fancies Helen Mirren and The Recession Jig, this superb quintet might not take themselves too seriously, however, their music most certainly is. From Ireland to the Middle East with a whistle stop towards Breton, Guidewires sound like a modern day Bothy Band. Musical error, you suspect, might be treated harshly backstage afterward; however, rarely, if ever, did a note slip or slide anywhere than its designated target. Top stuff in other words.

Philippe Cousin/Trad. Magazine.

When a young band starts, the usual habit would be to record a studio album to create a buzz. Curiously enough, it is not the method used here by Guidewires, this band was only born last year and instead of that they released a live album recorded last February in Ennis, Co.Clare. Gifted with a breathtaking energy, this quintet is used to the traditional melodies and the modern arrangements. Characteristic of Guidewires: four irishmen and one breton, Sylvain Barou. This flute player has been in Sualtam before working with Denez Prigent, David Pasquet, or the Guichen brothers, and has already played with Dónal Lunny and Liz Carroll. His mates names are Pádraig Rynne (concertina), Tóla Custy(originating from from a long line of Clare fiddlers who has played with Calico), Paul McSherry (guitar player from a famous Belfast family, founding member of Tamalin aside his brother and sisters) and Karol Lynch (bouzouki). Twelve tracks are featured on this album, mainly original compositions, irish for most of them but also breton (Polig's Gavottes) and Asturian (Cariáu Llaniscu), and some old traditionals distilled with a rare happiness. A delicious cocktail of various influences, solid and firm playing which leans on a perfectly mastered tradition. Here is without a doubt the best irish band of nowadays.

The Living Tradition Magazin - Jan '10

"Hotly tipped to be one of the biggest new releases of the year is “Live” the debut album from Guidewires."

Irish Music Magazine album review for Guidewires "Live" Nov '09

A new band is always intriguing, but this one promises something special. Padraig Rynne and Tola Custy on concertina and fiddle are well known names, stalwarts of Clare music. Emerging bousouker Karol Lynch and Breton fluter fantastic Sylvain Barou bring less predictable facets to Guidewires. The group is tied together by Belfast guitarist Paul McSherry: no better man for the job. Recorded live in Ennis, this album presents a purely instrumental mix of original tunes, compositions by a wide range of modern celtic composers, and some pure traditional pieces. The result is a fabulous hour of exciting music.

Starting with a superb flat-picked version of Paul's own tune Hoodwinked, Guidewires launch into a lovely Brendan Ring composition before Sylvain's Recession Jig ends the first set. Padraig shares the credits with Mike McGoldrick on a pair of powerful new reels, followed by Tola's beautiful slow version of Fred Finn's. After a couple of Riverdance-style jigs, and a haunting selection of Breton tunes with that raw Atlantic edge, Karol's composition Marbh Bán adds a moment of calm and a first taste of Balkan rhythms. There's no mistaking the Bulgarian beat on Vicki's World, and the lads follow it with the Eastern European favoutite Dance of Suleyman. A pan-celtic track ending with Cariáu Llaniscu (from Asturia I think) brings us to a hint of Donegal and Padraig's lyrical Liosbeg, before the second of three Donal Lunny melodies re-introduces the Balkan theme. Sylvain Barou's exceptional flute tone is on show again with two Brian Finnegan tunes, Marga's Moment and the jaunty Crooked Still Reel, before Mr Lunny takes a final royalty on Step Ahead Polka. Guidewires wrap it up with a set of classic reels, Padraig to the fore on Dinny O'Brien's before Tola growls in with McDonagh's and Sylvain takes an occasional breath during Bill Harte's.

Magnificent throughout, this quintet offers variety and brilliance on every track. All five members perform exceptionally here, and the ensemble sound is a dream. Comparisons with Danú, Nomos and even Lúnasa wouldn't be unreasonable: Guidewires could give anyone a run for their money. This debut CD is 2009 top ten material. The website has lots more info and a few well-hidden samples.

Alex Monaghan - Irish Music Magazine - nov '09

Paul Barr - Readings Carlton, Melbourne, Australia - Oct '09

Not many traditional bands can touch this fivepiece for sheer virtuosity, let alone the audacity of launching themselves with a five all-instrumental album. Paul McSherry (guitar) and Pádraig Rynne (concertina) are already big names on the Irish scene, but the other players, including Breton musician Sylvain Barou (flute), Tóla Custy (fiddle) and new bouzouki rhythym maestro Karol Lynch are equally brilliant on a mostly contemporary set of tunes with a wide variety of moods and colours and shifting tempos.

Irish Examiner article by Gerry Quinn 26/08/09

Guidewires Live, is the debut from a newly formed quintet featuring
four young Irish men and a Breton - Tóla Custy (fiddle), Pádraig Rynne (concertina), Sylvian Barou (flute), Paul McSherry (guitar) and Karol Lynch (bouzouki). Definitely on the progressive side of the trad tracks, Guidewires operate a modern approach when plying their trade. Reflective of urbane, educated and travelled protagonists, this innovative offering, though primarily populated with self composed material, Galician and Breton tunes, still has, as its core, an appreciation of the indefinable thread that runs through traditional music. Assured ensemble playing, mixing high-energy with slower reflective pieces, all unite into a powerful debut. Although it might not be the single-malt whisky that the purists demand, this enchanting cocktail of influences, with a solid traditional base, heralds the arrival of a top-notch combo, who appear very much at ease with their role in the scheme of things.

Guidewires – “Live” album review the Irish Times, 14/08/2009

GUIDEWIRES “Live” ****
There are many remarkable things about this debut. A cacophony of sound melded with such vivacity and joie de vivre that it leapfrogs into the ether without even a whiff of a by-your-leave, Guidewires’ debut rips up the rulebook and tosses it in the air. Only the foolhardy or the truly audacious would release a live recording as a debut, but Guidewires (Pádraig Rynne, Tóla Custy, Paul McSherry, Karol Lynch and Breton Sylvain Barou on flute and low whistles) jettison the safety net of the studio in favour of the vim of their live performance. A torrent of Guidewires’ original tunes rages through a rich traditional foundation (and some lovely reminders of Dónal Lunny’s compositional genius), rip-curling their way into the air faster than most mortals can draw breath. A spectacular, multicoloured debut.

Siobhán Long , The Irish Times.

The Feast Of Music, New York Jan '09.

"The stars of the night were Guidewires, another five-piece who played tight, energetic music that seemed like it was ready to explode off the Donaghy theater stage."