25 things to look forward to in 2012…. The Gloaming album

It was short, but The Gloaming’s summer tour was invigorating and potentially seminal, with the music bracing and beautiful in equal measure. The supergroup of sean-nós singer Iarla Ó Lionáird, fiddle players Martin Hayes and Caoimhín Ó Raghallaigh, guitarist Dennis Cahill and classically trained pianist Thomas Bartlett grew from sessions at Grouse Lodge Studios, in Westmeath, early this year. From those recordings will come an album, but before that may be a live EP. Their live performances so far have been revelatory, and they play New York’s GlobalFest in January. Future Irish dates are likely to cement them as one of the great forces in Irish music - The Irish Times