Behind The Scenes Images: Lankum, ‘The Livelong Day’

February 20, 2020 9:21 am

With dark lyrics and eery sounds coming from their instruments, Irish four-piece group Lankum has their work cut out for them in 2020 and will plan on tackling it with the release of ‘The Livelong Day.’ The 8-track album was released in October of 2019 and while a shorter album than the standard, it is nearly an hour long! Dragging out these songs and notes allows for the song to be more effective in its sparseness.

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Coming in on NPR’s #8 Top 25 albums of 2019, ‘The Livelong Day’ is reminiscent of the success that their previous two albums gained. It is rooted in their Irish heritage, featuring Uilleann pipes that are etched into the traditions of their homeland. This is something very important to the group. They use the art of droning to honor the sacredness of the music while using some of their own unique styles to get their message across through the stories they are telling. “Drone is a big part of traditional music because the Uilleann pipes are indigenious to Ireland” the band explains. Many of the tracks have the ability to relay multiple messages that while they are in fact depressing and dark, they do have a sense of hope. This gives Lankum an advantage when it comes to appealing to listeners that all have different situations going on in their lives.

Although some of these songs were written centuries ago, there is still a lesson to be learned in each one that apply to our everyday lives. This is the ultimate goal of Lankum, who says that they are just trying to “communicate in our world, trying to communicate what people see when they look at the world and what their experience of reality is. We just want people to forge a genuine emotional connection to our music, on whatever level works for them.”

Much of the traditional music we hear from across the world has a sense of pride and nationalism attached to it and none is more prominent than Lankum’s ‘The Livelong Day.’ The group will be showcasing these tracks while out on the road in 2020, including a little over half a dozen stops in the U.S. with their first stop being at the Mercury Lounge in the Big Apple. To see a complete list of tour dates, visit them at LankumDublin.com.

‘The Livelong Day’ is available on streaming sites everywhere today. Check out the photos by Robert Watson, and for more, click here.