Written in Guillaume and Isobel's kitchen in Hackney Downs during the big snow in December 2009. I had just returned to London from a few months spent in the States, completely broke, and in need of a new flat and a new job, but very happy nonetheless. Recorded at Arad Studios in December 2013. 

St Marks' Rise I

This is the first song I wrote since returning to my home on the south coast of Co. Wexford in July(2014). It's about friendship, and was inspired by all the good people I knocked about with this summer - walkers, players, talkers, swimmers, co-workers, sisters, cousins, family, neighbours...

Birds On The Wing

Written at the aforementioned flat, 'St Marks' Rise in East London in 2010, in recollection of a short and sweet romance. The man in question kept this picture of Paul McCartney by his bed; he said he found it reassuring when he woke up in the morning. Being as much of a dreamer as he was, I could empathise, though I couldn't help thinking - and not without some regret - that in a realist's world the person one wakes up beside is ideally the source of such daily reassurances.

Paul with the Rose in his Teeth

Earlier in 2014 local Wexford-based artist/filmmaker and sheep farmer, Els Dietvorst asked me to write the theme song for her film, 'The Rabbit & The Teasel'. The film tells the tale of a farmer as he struggles to survive apocalyptic flooding due to rising sea levels and relentless storms. Eerily enough, as I began writing the song last February the worst storms to hit Ireland in living memory struck, and flooded every coastal townland and village along the west and south coasts of the country, Wexford included. 

Water Rising

I grew up on the south coast of Wexford. I left here in 1996 to go see the world, or part thereof at least. Eighteen years later I'd seen enough for a while, and so I moved back here several months ago to settle again in the countryside by the sea and lead the good life.
 
I've been making music for as long as I can remember. I seem to keep coming back to 'folk' songs, despite numerous forays into other areas of musicmaking - from electronic instrumentals, to acoustic sound improvisations, to everything in between. 

For now I've chosen to put just solo live recordings of my folk songs up here. Most are quite crude one-take recordings made in my home with one mic (a Rode NT-2A) placed roughly half-way between my mouth and my very old handmade Austurius nylon string acoustic. The story of each song is told in the 'track info'. 

Some other work I've made can be found at www.clangsayne.com . Over the coming months I hope to document all the music I've made - and left to gather dust on harddrives and old fourtrack tapes - over the past twenty years or so. Watch this space!   

Laura Hyland

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