Nadur

Nádúr is Clannad’s first album of new material since 1998’s Grammy winning Landmarks, and the sees the full original line-up – siblings Moya, Ciarán and Pól Brennan and their twin uncles Noel and Pádraig Duggan – back together on record for the first time since the 1989 album Past Present. It is a fitting title for the coming together of this legendary Celtic family band; Nádúr is the Gaelic word for Nature.

Nádúr is a very natural progression to the Clannad sound, which since the 70s has been to fuse the traditional with the modern, the past and the future, with stunningly beautiful results. Nádúr marks a forty year recording career which has seen such hits as “Theme From Harry’s Game”, “In A Lifetime”, “I Will Find You” and the soundtrack to the Robin of Sherwood TV series.

Review:
“Clannad became synonymous with Celtic new age in the late 1980s and ’90s. Adding layers of sometimes ethereal, sometimes majestic-sounding synth pads and drum loops to traditional instruments and electric guitars, the band became a signpost for other acts during the Celtic music boom at the end of the last century and the dawn of the new. After winning a Best New Age album Grammy in 1998 for Landmarks, the band took an extended break. They issued a live album in 2011, but Nádúr marks their formal return to studio recording after 15 years away. These 13 tracks – ten originals, two traditional Gaelic tunes, and a Scottish air – meld Irish music’s heritage with contemporary jazz, electronic new age, and soft pop and rock. While many acoustic instruments adorn these songs – mandolas, penny whistles, bodrahns, harps, and acoustic guitars – so do electric six-strings, fretless basses, synths, and subtle loops adding edges and unsderscoring the band’s mastery of textures to frame their melodies. While Nádúr breaches no new terrain, it will prove a welcome return for Clannad’s inter­national legion of fans.”

• Thom Jurek (All Music)