Renowned Dublin-based trad music duo VARO have shared details surrounding the release of their new collaborative album ‘The World That I Knew’ (out  9 May 2025) which features guest appearances from the great and good of the contemporary Irish folk scene including Lankum’s Ian Lynch, John Francis Flynn, Anna Mieke, Junior Brother, Lemoncello and Niamh Bury.

‘The World That I Knew’ is previewed by lead single ‘Red Robin’ featuring award-winning harpist Alannah Thornburgh. “Working with Alannah has been an absolute pleasure,”  explain VARO aka Lucie Azconaga and Consuelo Nerea Breschi. “She’s insanely talented and the loveliest woman. The harp perfectly creates this soft melancholic and emotional sound we were looking for.”

 “We learned this song from a 1977 recording of Mikey Kelleher (1907-1987), found in an online collection of songs from County Clare. We immediately fell in love with the melody and lyrics, which describes a state of mind rather than a real story. It seemed to paint a paysage of melancholy, memories and loneliness, and at the same time of extreme human warmth and connection with the elements of nature.”

“It was a pleasure working on the arrangement of ‘Red Robin’ with Varo and bringing it to life in many performances and recordings since,” says Alannah Thornburgh, who has just been nominated for an RTÉ Radio 1 Folk Award in the Best Original Folk Track category.

Alannah Thornburgh and another of the album’s collaborators, Branwen, will join VARO at their headline show at the Pepper Cannister Church, Dublin on Saturday 25th January, as part of TradFest 2025. Tickets available now from TradFest.com.

The full list of collaborators on the album includes Ian Lynch (Lankum), John Francis Flynn, Anna Mieke, Alannah Thornburgh, Junior Brother, Slow Moving Clouds, Niamh Bury, Inni-K, Ruth Clinton and Cormac MacDiarmada (Poor Creature), Lemoncello and Branwen. The World That I Knew is available to pre-order now via VARO’s Bandcamp page.