Northern Lights is a unique Norse-Irish fusion project that brings together traditional Irish and Scandinavian folk music.

Inspired by the discovery of the Havhingsten fra Glendalough or The Sea Stallion, a thousand-year-old ship built in Dublin, that regularly traversed the sea passages between Denmark and Ireland, Lorcán Mac Mathuna, Raphaël de Cock and James Mahon founded Northen Lights. Intrigued by the history of cultural exchange that has occurred between the Irish and the Norse for over one thousand years, Northern Lights seeks to uncover and explore the intriguing musical relationships—both confrontational and collaborational— that exist between the musical traditions of these seemingly distinct cultures.

To this end, the trio draws from a range of musical styles, including traditional forms such as Kveding (the medieval singing of Scandinavia), Aislings, marches, and laments, as well as newer forms such as jigs and polkas. Such diverse influences are then brought together by the band’s foregrounding of common tonalities and deliveries across each style, as well as their careful selection of songs that conform to similar thematics, including subject matter such as sea journeys and exile. Northern Lights combines Sean-nós singing, Scandinavian kveding (medieval & traditional songstyle), fiddle, uilleann pipes, Swedish bagpipes (säckpipa), Norwegian hardangerfiddle, harmonic flutes, whistles and percussion to create their distinctive sound.

Members:

Lorcán Mac Mathuna – Sean nós singer

Lorcán Mac Mathúna was raised in a background steeped in Irish music and singing. The Gaelic songs of the West and South of Ireland and their unique Sean nós style was central in his musical nurturing and left an indelible print on him which he carries forward in all his musical life.

With the diminishing of its linguistic heartland Sean nós was quite recently considered an endangered art. It was this fragile and beautiful tradition that Lorcán fell in love with through encounters with the older generation of masters of the tradition whose influence passed through his household directly and indirectly by means of his fathers work as a traditional musician.

Lorcán’s understanding of the soul of Sean nós transcends music and story. His presentation retells the sagas of Irish folk history in their original Gaelic, accompanied by instrumental scores that are in perfect empathy with the lyricism of the songs tales. Whether these songs are love songs, laments, war marches, or playful songs of carousing and courting the songs lyricism is perfectly conveyed by the musical symbiosis between his voice and his chosen instrument. Lorcán’s understanding of the songs he sings, and feeling for their emotional currents is matched by a fresh approach to accompaniment rooted in top notch slow air playing.

Lorcán’s style is confident, measured, and engaging. He expresses the feeling of his songs and connects the listener to the emotions of the songs creators. His presentation pricks your curiosity as he shares his enthusiasm for tunes, songs and stories, and the people who carried the tradition from the past.

He has built a relationship with the songs he sings. His style of presentation reflects the story of the song in the cadence and phraseology of the music and words.

Lorcán has toured Ireland and Belgium and has performed in international festivals such as LIFEM09 and Celtic Connections 09. He has performed as a solo singer at IMRAM, the Dublin Irish literature festival, in Bantry house, and in collaborations throughout Ireland.

His album Rógaire Dubh, was described as “captivating and truly extraordinary” by the Living Tradition, “Deep, Dark, and Beautiful” by Songlines who described Lorcán as an “astonishing new voice.” The JMI descried him as having “both the voice and the attitude to place him in the first rank of the new wave of traditional singers”

Raphaël De Cock - uilleann pipes, whistles, kantele (Finnish harp), jews harps, kaval (bulgarian flute), säckpipa (Swedish bagpipes) and sälgeflöt (Swedish overtone flute), the chatkhan (Siberian zither) amongst man yother instruments.

A talented instrumentalist with a keen interest in traditional northern European musical traditions and an accomplished linguist, Raphaël De Cock has studied singing in several
languages and styles including, medieval Norwegian ballads, Gaelic, Gadhlic, Sardinian polyphonic singing, and Siberian overtone (Throat) singing.

Raphaël is an accomplished Siberian Throat singer and uillean pipes teacher with  extensive experience playing in a variety of ethno-cultral bands. Along with with Sacha Van Loo, he is the co-founder of the Irish traditional band, Cú Chullainn; he has played in Griff, a pipeband involving Irish, French and Belgian pipes; Osuna, an Annatolian and Sibero-Norse band; Néboa, a gourp featuring gallician and portugeuse songs and percussion; and, he is a member of the vocal sextet Keukkojoen, a group that has played Ancienne Belgique” (AB - Brussel), the Kieku festival (Helsinki - Finland), and the Gooik folk festival.

James Mahon – flute, Uilleann pipes

James Mahon is a traditional musician from Dublin who graduated from the DIT Conservatory of Music in 2009, with a Bachelor of Music. He is presently undertaking study for a Master’s Degree at the University of Limerick’s Faculty of Traditional Music. He is a specialist in traditional Irish Music and ethnomusicology.

He has performed throughout Europe and the USA in various traditional music partnerships. Recently he was involved with conductor Dave Brophy, performing large excerpts from Shaun Davey’s Brendan Voyage with the DIT symphony orchestra.

His incredible musicianship has been noted on many occasions and he is the recipient of seven All Ireland titles, across a range of categories including slow airs on the flute, senior Uillean Pipes (2005) and senior flute (2006).

James Mahon studied flute under Tom Doorly and June McCormack, and Uilleann Pipes under Joe Doyle and na píobairí úillean.