LEMONCELLO

The Gallery Sessions Present:

LEMONCELLO

Sunday July 7th

Adm €16

Doors 8:30pm

https://www.lemoncelloireland.com/

"Quirke and Kinsella create baroque folk good for the head and the heart." - Tony Clayton Lea, The Irish Times

Lemoncello’s ‘debut EP, Stuck Upon the Staircase revealed Quirke and Kinsella to be nigh on sorcerous artists in the realm of immersive, harmony-led folk. 2019 will see Lemoncello continue to emerge as a vital voice in the country’s thriving alternative folk scene” - Brian Coney, The Thin Air, 19 for '19

Lemoncello are Laura Quirke and Claire Kinsella; two Irish musicians, from Co. Carlow and Donegal respectively, who became friends while studying at Maynooth University, near Dublin. They make music together using four fundamental ingredients—a guitar, a cello and two voices.

While bonding as students over discussion of musical intricacies; the power of particular chord progressions, the challenge of emotional vulnerability and humour in lyric-writing, Laura shared her songs with Claire, and soon they were playing at ‘The Loft’, a nurturing open-mic in Maynooth, Claire’s cello forming a natural partnership with Laura’s guitar.

Some years and many gigs later, both their friendship and their art have flourished. Laura and Claire share a love of playful experimentation, and delicately rework folk patterns with an existential eye, taking inspiration from the likes of Leonard Cohen and Sun Kil Moon. Irish influences such as Lisa Hannigan, Fionn Regan and the Gloaming are clear and the emotional intensity of chanteurs Jacques Brel and Barbara have also made their mark on Lemoncello’s sound. Each song is oddly familiar, luring the listener into a world they have made uniquely their own.

Thoughtful lyrics complete the intoxicating concoction. Observations of human nature and the modern world come in as waves on the sea of subtle instrumentation and, to take a line from their song Mantlepiece, leave you resting like ‘a pebble deposited on the beach’.

Collaboration with friends has been a recurring motif in Lemoncello’s story and greatly important for the duo’s development. They have worked with many leading Irish artists such as Hatchlings, Alannah Thornburgh (Alfi), Myles O’ Reilly (music documentarian), David Keenan, Junior Brother and Gareth Quinn Redmond.

In 2018 Lemoncello successfully crowd-funded their EP, Stuck Upon The Staircase. Since then they have made appearances on Irish and UK TV and radio and have been played well over 600,000 times on Spotify. The pair appeared at numerous Irish festivals in the same year, including Other Voices and Body and Soul.

Laura and Claire are currently putting together their second EP, which is due for release in September 2019.