UCC Library are very excited to host a special one off performance by 'alternative folk rock band' Boa Morte.

They, as part of the UCC Library Culture night programme, will be playing in entirety their forthcoming album, The Total Space. The album was recorded with producer Daniel Presley (Spain, the Breeders) in Black Mountain Studios, Co. Louth. The band added synths and effects in home studios during various Covid lockdowns and recorded other overdubs with composer/producer Justin Grounds (Vespertine Quartet, Idiot Songs). The album was mixed by Stephen Shannon (Adrian Crowley, Mount Alaska) and mastered by Richard Dowling at WavMastering (Death in Vegas, David Bowie, Beth Orton, Brian Eno).

The work is representative of the bands’ evolution towards a type of ambient Americana which combines their original songwriting style with an increasing appreciation of ambient electronica and has resulted in a distinctive progression in the Boa Morte sound which utilises drones, found sounds and ambient electronica.

Now is your chance to get a sneak preview of the album, months before its release.

Reviews of ‘Before there was air’ (2020):

***** (5/5) RnR Magazine (UK) – “The tunes flow into each other creating the sense of a suite, as if Brian Eno’s Apollo, Atmospheres and Soundtracks had been recorded instead by Robert Wyatt and James Yorkston”.

9/10 Norman Records (UK) – “There’s an off-kilter approach to music-making here, with woozy arrangements exposing the true beauty of their chosen instrumentation. Glorious, earthy and touching music, sometimes with shades of James Yorkston or Gruff Rhys”

**** (4/5) The Irish Times – “slow burning alt-folk doesn’t come any more steady or smooth”

For Folks Sake (UK) – “Boa Morte deliver an album awash in sound that challenges one to listen with an open mind. Before there was air is a gift that has been dropped on an audience that must listen closely to comprehend all its beauty”

Reviews of ‘The Dial Waltz’ (2010):

**** (4/5) UNCUT - "the melodies are delicate and the mood of weary sadness well rendered. ‘Priceless Prize’ has the feel of Low at their most sepulchral"

**** (4/5) Hot Press - "Delicately beautiful new record from Cork alt-folkies. Boa Morte are really good. Theoretically, a band like Boa Morte could reach out with music like this and reach and galvanise an international tribe of its own. Because it is, really, a very, very fine record."

**** (4/5) The Metro-Herald - "Recalling the hillbilly goth of Bill Calahan and Bonnie 'Prince' Billy, the Cork collective's first album in nearly a decade is a thing of bleak, muted beauty. A shoo-in for the next Choice shortlist if there's any justice in the world."

Reviews of ‘Soon it will come time to face the world outside’ (2002):

***** Dubfly (5 stars) - Album of the Month - "I’m listening to this Boa Morte album at the moment and it does things to you. It¹s simultaneously life-affirming and heart-wrenching.“

**** (4/5) UNCUT - “Occasionally a record comes along that's so intimate and immediate you want to disconnect the phone, get under the duvet and forget the outside world."