Imagine yourself at a session that’s far away from home and it just ends. You have an hour drive to get home and to keep yourself awake, you listen to Irish fiddler Ciaran O’Maonaigh’s new album Caillte Sa Cheol. It gets the job done because like the title, you get “Lost in the Music.”

The album starts off strong with a set of three reels: Farewell to Leitrim, The Moving Bog, and Repeal of the Union, all of which are all played with brilliance. Ciaran’s fiddle playing with Beoga’s Seán Óg Graham guitar accompaniment is impeccable in this track!

The next set is called “Palm Sunday” and Ciaran’s wife, Caitlin Nic Gabhann joins in on concertina in this set and it sounds excellent! The way all three instruments synch up is perfection! The Frankie’s Frolics set appears to bring a lot from home in multiple ways. The first tune appears to be one of Ciaran’s compositions and the second one is played a lot in Donegal, where Ciaran is from.

The next set entitled Over the Hills was the first track to be released on the album and it did it disappoint. The set starts with two tunes commonly known in Donegal, and as soon as the third tune appears, the pace picks up with a tune called Over the Hills and builds into a tune called Nora Chriona. The pace slows down with a beautiful slow march called Unst Bridal March that brings in a slow pace with a soft drone throughout the track.

The pace picks back up again with a pair of fiery reels called Creamers and Piobaire an Cheide with Caitlin on concertina accompanying Ciaran.

It slows down again with a hop jig called The Mamore Gap, followed by two hornpipes The Low Level and The Star, and finishes the set with a reel called President Garfield’s.

It slows down again with a singular barndance called Taibhse Chonaill.

The pace picks up yet again with two solid reels called The Blackberry Blossom and Kitty Gone a Milking. Ciaran plays a jig set after called Rosie From Donegal which is likely one of his own compositions the final tune in the set is a jig that Caitlin composed called St. Brigid’s Day, so it was beautiful to hear both of their composed tunes in the set.

The final tune set is called Kitty O’Neill’s. It includes this tune and Woman of the House and it was the only track that was produced live. If you listen to the track all the way through, you can hear some chatter at the end giving the album proper closure. Ultimately, this beautiful album uncovers a lot of music that has been hidden away for many years, tunes that are familiar, and brand new compositions. As mentioned before, this album lives up to its name, and is one you will want to blast in your car because of how spectacular it is.

The CD with a booklet and digital download can be found on their Bandcamp Channel.