It’s hard to review an EP that is only just over nine minutes long. What makes it even more difficult is that there is only one instrument used in those nine minutes. Ok, there is a hint of strings on the opener ‘I Am Always in Your Power’ and a sprinkling of percussion on closer ‘Down I Go’ but this is a piano piece. Oh, did I mention it’s instrumental too? But review I must and Seamus O’Muineachain’s new EP Between Islands is the subject.
The piano is not an instrument on whose proficiency I can comment, although there’s no doubt he’s a talented composer, so I feel the only things I can write about are the pictures the songs paint in my head or what stories they may soundtrack. ‘I Am Always in Your Power’ is like the first day of spring. The sun has come out and the snow is retreating. It could almost be Sigur Ros but for the fact that there is only one instrument on show.
Second track ‘By Her Window’ has a Romeo & Juliet feel (I’ll be honest, the title gives me a bit of an indication here). His right hand seems to want to be set free, always pushing for something joyful, only to be denied by the consistency and overbearing power of the left hand’s bass notes.
EP closer ‘Down I Go’ is like walking through deserted cityscape after some apocalyptic catastrophe. With the pictures his music draws, perhaps the talented Mr O’Muineachain’s future lies in soundtracking original scores.
Overall, it’s a quality EP if you give your attention and concentration to it, but I’m not sure forty minutes of it would be my cup of tea.