Album Notes

Orla is a vibrant artist steeped in Celtic Lore, whose material is born of personal feelings, respect for and understanding of the Irish tradition. This album possesses a strong sense of time and place, the subject matter ranging from her love for traditional music to love lost and a sense of physical and emotional displacement. She's been classed as a singer with the voice of an angel that challenges the allure and the guts of Sinead O' Connor. Her voice is so spiritually haunting that monks write her lyrics for her!

Subtitled "new songs of the Celtic Spirit", this is a refreshing and highly listenable debut from a newly discovered young home-grown talent. With an instrumental backdrop combining orchestral as well as traditionally inspired melodies and textures, The Blue Note features 12 original songs with a strong theme of love, loss and separation. Clannad, Enya and Dolores Keane are all obvious influences but the real revelation here is Orla's voice, which is at time so light and airy it's almost translucent - the overall effect being one of reflective calm and serenity. An eminently accomplished debut. (Colm O' Hare, Hot Press)