January - February 2003

Dear Friends

Happy New Year to you all!

These first two months have just whizzed by. The first part of January was filled with preparations for a recording with the Chinese Er-Hu artist Ding Fei Fei. We had the pleasure of performing with her last June In Hong Kong. She is an amazing virtuoso player, and it was great fun to hear her performing some of our music. As a result of that performance she invited us to participate on her new recording, which will be released some time soon.

We were delighted to be asked as we felt there was a good synergy between us all.

So back to our favourite studio, Windmill Lane in Dublin, where we lay down 2 tracks for Ding Fei Fei. Our Uilleann piper and whistle player Mick O’ Brien also joined in the recording, and Andrew Boland engineered. We were very happy with the finished recording and look forward to hearing the completed CD.

Once the recording was over rehearsing and preparations for the Irish Tour began. As it was our first tour in Ireland there was a lot of promo to be done.So Fionnuala spent some time between Limerick, Cork and Dublin meeting the press, doing photos and radio interviews. All this as well as squeezing in maximum rehearsal time as we were adding 10 new songs to the concert programme. Rolf was busy back in Norway rehearsing and writing new material, which we look forward to demoeing soon.

Thankfully all concerts were a sell out success. The reception we received in all the venues was exceptional, and made them into performances that we will never forget. The band had a wonderful time in the village of Kilaloo rehearsing before the first concert in Limerick, and got to experience some real Irish Hospitality. The people we met after each concert, while signing were just fantastic, and it meant so much to Fionnuala to be able at long last to bring the music “Home”. Her old neighbours in the road that she grew up in, in Naas, even hired a bus and came to the concert in Dublin. Apart from the support of all these old friends, people travelled from as far as Norway, Belgium, Holland, UK, Monaco and Germany to see the performances.

There aren’t words to describe the gratitude we feel for those who travelled so far. We sincerely hope that you all had a wonderful time.

Now that the Irish tour is over, we have needed some recovery time, and are back now preparing and writing for what promises to be an exciting spring ahead. This will include trips to the US and Japan with also some recording time back in Norway.

Some other news in, there is a Korean artist who at the moment is having Korean lyrics put to our song Illumination in order to record it. Two Irish artists, Ronan Tynan (from the Irish Tenors) and The Keane Brothers, have covered our song “You raise Me Up”. The Latin American artist Miquel?/ is also planning to record the same song.

We have also been asked this week for permission to have Persian lyrics put to some of the songs. So truly it’s possible to understand how music can travel through so many different cultures.

Will write again in April
All the best
Fionnuala and Rolf