Photo Credit – Anna McGrane
Two of Ireland’s most distinctive and versatile musicians, Aoife Ní Bhriain and Cormac McCarthy, have announced the release of their collaborative album, ‘Cosán Casta‘, due out 7 November 2025. The first single from the album, ‘A Mháire’, is available from today.
Blending deep roots in Irish traditional music with classical, jazz, and contemporary influences, Ní Bhriain and McCarthy chart a compelling sonic path through a shared musical heritage, transformed through their own creative lens. The album title, ‘Cosán Casta‘, derives from the Irish words for “twisted path”, reflecting a journey both intricate and organic, rooted and exploratory.
The first single, ‘A Mháire’, out now, is a haunting slow air based on “A Mháire, ’s a Mhuirnín,” collected by the Joyce brothers in 1844 from a blind piper named O’Hannigan in Mitchelstown, Co. Cork, just a year before the country and its people were devastated by the Great Famine.
“This tune carries a weight of history,” explain the duo “It’s a remnant of a people, a culture, songs, stories, and a way of life on the brink of devastation. In that sense, it is a startling similarity to what we are watching happen in the world today.”
The final phrase of this version quotes The Star of Munster, famously associated with the iconic Dublin fiddler Tommie Potts, whose expressive freedom and innovation have deeply influenced the duo’s approach on this recording.
”Considering what was happening in Ireland at that time and how much music was being collected for us to play and treasure today truly reflects the power that music held for the Irish people. When they left Ireland they took it with them – as we did when we moved abroad to study music.”
“The poem “Motto” by Bertoldt Brecht speaks to us about how music is so important in times when the world seems like a darker place. “In the dark times, will there also be singing? Yes, there will be singing. About the dark times.”
Stream A Mháire: https://cormacmccarthy1.bandcamp.com/track/a-mh-ire
LIVE DATES:
August 10 – KILKENNY, Kilkenny Arts Festival – Tickets available now from www.kilkennyarts.ie
September 23 – LIMERICK, University of Limerick
November 6 – DUBLIN, The Complex Arts Centre
Tickets on sale soon, + more to be announced…
ABOUT THE ALBUM
‘Cosán Casta‘ is a deeply considered and intimate work that reimagines Irish traditional music through original compositions, reinterpretations of archival tunes, and a fusion of classical and jazz idioms. The record pays homage to the music Aoife and Cormac grew up with, the musical language they heard and spoke in their family homes.
For both Aoife & Cormac, music is deeply tied to confidence, a sense of place, and a feeling of authority. To play their own music, to have trust not only in the notes but the nuances, the quirks of stylistic ornamentation, and the interpretation of the manuscripts collected before their time, has brought them on a path of discovery, helping them find their voice and bring to life their own interpretation of tradition to life.
Having both left Irish to further study music, to discover, develop and explore their practice within the worlds of jazz and classical genres, “it became apparent very quickly that the musical accent of our own traditional music was one that cannot be disguised or gotten rid of easily,” says the pair. “This accent defines how we approach music of all genres but also how we express the truest version of ourselves.”
A mix of the old and new, the album tells “the stories of who we are and where we come from but also the story of the journey our music has taken us on throughout our careers. The paths we have taken have been no means straightforward and the twists and turns on our musical journeys have always directed us back home – to where the music started. ‘Is fada an bóthar nach bhfuil casadh ann.’ It’s a long road that has no turning/bends.”
Cosán Casta Tracklist
1. Cailleach 3:14
2. Coffee Club 6:42
3. Cosán 0:55
4. A Mháire 5:59
5. Butterfly 2:31
6. Cosán Casta 2:55
7. Gallagher’s Frolics 5:37
8. Crowley’s 4:17
9. Ducko 4:40
10. Planxty 4:47
11. Casta 1:20
12. Salamanca 4:48
Cosán Casta Credits
Aoife Ní Bhriain – fiddle/violin
Cormac McCarthy – piano
Recorded at St Peter’s Church Drogheda 25 – 27 February 2025
Recording Engineer: Ben Rawlins
Mixed and Mastered by Ben Rawlins
Produced by Aoife Ní Bhriain & Cormac McCarthy
Cover Art: Ciara Walton & Dan Abbot
Design: Dan Abbott