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In January, we shared the news that the Dublin-based duo VARO, featuring Consuelo Nerea Breschi from Italy and Lucie Azconaga from France, are to release a collaborative album, The World That I Knew (out on May 9th). The album features some of the biggest names in Ireland’s contemporary folk and trad scene: Ian Lynch (Lankum), John Francis Flynn, Anna Mieke, Alannah Thornburgh, Junior Brother, Slow Moving Clouds, Niamh Bury, Inni-K, Ruth Clinton and Cormac MacDiarmada (Poor Creature), Lemoncello and Branwen.
It’s been a longtime coming, the project was first announced in 2020, the same year as their self-titled debut. Now, following their lead single, Red Robin (feat. Alannah Thornburgh), they have revealed their second album single ‘Green Grows the Laurel’ featuring Irish folk musician John Francis Flynn.
Describing the process of working on this traditional song together, Lucie Azconaga and Consuelo Nerea Breschi, A.K.A. VARO, say: “John is one of the first people we physically met to work with for this project at the time. It’s been extremely enjoyable. We’d known each other and had played together for years, but that was the very first time we were taking a song from scratch in order to build it together. His voice is so beautiful and deep. It contrasted really well with ours while being very complementary at the same time. It all happened very easily.
“We all agreed to bring some dark level of pain and loneliness to it. The double-whistle he’s using creates this tense and kind of crying line that opens and concludes the song. We decided to keep the rest quite bare to represent the loneliness of the main character until we reach the ending with a heavy crescendo accompanying the pain and struggles of this heartbroken narrator. We’ve invited John to perform it with us on several occasions since then and it’s always been an absolute pleasure.”
John Francis Flynn says: “I first heard Green Grows The Laurel sung by Delores Keane and was immediately struck by its beautiful melody. Keane’s version with John Faulkner is iconic but it was exciting to try something a little different with it with my friends Consuelo and Lucie. It was really nice to work with the excellent John Murphy who recorded and mixed the track. I’m very happy with the result.”
The accompanying video was directed and edited by VARO and filmed by Nathanael Macdonald with Ronan Nissenbaum as Camera Assistant.
Pre-Order The World That I Knew: https://varodublin.bandcamp.com/album/the-world-that-i-knew-pre-order
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