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Oisín Leech: Cold Sea review – you can almost taste the salt

Recorded on the wild coast of Donegal, the Lost Brothers’ musician’s first solo outing has a lonesome, atmospheric simplicity

Instead, he and producer Steve Gunn have conjured up a record rich in atmosphere, whose songs have a wintry simplicity in the spirit of Leech’s favourite poet, Seamus Heaney. Instrumentally, it’s essentially just Leech, his guitar and some vintage recording gear, though Gunn adds washes of synth, and favours have been called in from former Dylan sidekick Tony Garnier on bass, and bouzouki player Dónal Lunny. The songs are allusive and lonesome, supplemented by a pair of instrumentals, including the title track and a piece, Maritime Radio, in which an imaginary weather forecast is just discernible beneath waves of shimmering guitars.

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