CONCERTINA player Caroline Keane will launch her second album, Rise, at the Record Room in the Commercial this Saturday May 23.
The album marks a significant step forward for the Clare-born, West Kerry-based musician, described as one of the leading voices in contemporary concertina playing. Rise is her first fully interdisciplinary work, combining concertina music with film, visual art and design, with cinematography by filmmaker Michael Kelly.
Keane has described the record as her most personal to date. It features collaborations with guitarist Steve Cooney, a long-time influence, alongside Conal O’Kane, Ryan Molloy, Tom Delany, Eamon Murray, Laura Kerr, Deirdre Granville, Kyle Waymouth, and Keane’s mother, Cecelia Keane. The album was recorded in West Kerry by Donogh Hennessy.
Rooted in the musical landscape of Corca Dhuibhne, where Keane lives with her family, Rise draws on the tradition as a living, daily presence rather than something preserved at a distance. One track, composed by Sébastien Lagrange, features both Steve Cooney and Cecelia Keane, and carries particular emotional weight. “I lost my father when I was young, but I’ve always felt his presence close by,” Keane said. “Playing this piece with my mother brings that connection directly into the music.”
The album is dedicated to her mother and grandmother, and she credits both with shaping her approach to music and to life. Motherhood itself, she says, has sharpened rather than slowed her creative focus. “There’s less time, so the work has to matter.”
Rise follows her earlier single Three Sisters, inspired by the West Kerry landscape and the generations of women connected to it.
The album cover features a specially commissioned work by artist Karen Sherwood. The artist features in Caroline’s stunning video for ‘Mon Père Vit Dans Les Étoiles’. Set against a West Kerry sunrise and the Atlantic shoreline, it follows Sherwood as she paints the album’s front cover in real time.