LANDLESS

Landless are Ruth Clinton, Meabh Meir, Sinead Lynch and Lily Power. They sing unaccompanied traditional songs from Irish, Scottish, English and American traditions in close four-part harmony. Their repertoire features songs of love, death and lamentation, as well as work songs, shape-note hymns and more recently-penned folk songs. Landless have performed in a variety of settings, both in Ireland and abroad, and are closely involved with traditional singing sessions in Dublin and Belfast.

Landless released their second album, Lúireach, in 2024. Working again with John ‘Spud’ Murphy (Lankum/Katie Kim), this album has received widespread critical acclaim and features subtle instrumentation as well as unaccompanied singing. They released their debut album Bleaching Bones in March 2018.

“Vocal harmony is in the dense weave of so much traditional music, and it becomes a startling, golden thread in Landless’s second album […], a collection of 10 sublime songs …. four female singers whose voices seem to rise from the sacra of their spines, emerging from their bodies in heavenly flight or heavy drones …. Long-term Celtic music fans should flock to them – they’re a deliciously doomier Clannad – while devotees of Ireland’s current, brilliant scene should also respond to their stunning intensity.” ***** The Guardian (Folk Album of the Month)

"Instrumentals are sparse – little strokes, plucks and drones deployed to gently push the song’s emotion, rather than as ornamentation. Likewise, Murphy’s production draws out emotional depths with a scalpel rather than a sledgehammer. The focus here is on the band’s extraordinary voices. Placed front and centre in the mix, they weave in and out of each other, latticing together to create a shapeshifting whole that sweeps elegantly from low, dark drones to transcendent highs.” The Quietus

“… a four-part harmony group who - on their second LP - come across like Macbeth’s Weird Sisters crashing a Sandy Denny séance. Lankum's Cormac MacDiarmada guests as trad tunes get a Marble Index makeover: The Grey Selkie Of Sule Skerry and The Wounded Hussar in particular could stun a bat at 30 paces. Unearthly.” **** MOJO