Review | “Cold Sea” by Oisin Leech
A mesmerizing solo debut from a most promising Irish singer-songwriter
Recorded in an old schoolhouse on the desolate seashores of Malin, at the northernmost frontiers of Ireland, “Cold Sea” is a stunningly confident debut solo album of rare beauty and lyricism, featuring primarily the voice of Irish singer-songwriter Oisin Leech, who was known until today as one-half of The Lost Brothers, a folk duo he formed with Mark McCausland in 2008.
“Cold Sea” is produced by American singer-guitarist Steve Gunn -both are credited with the gentle guitar strumming and synth touches that accompany most of the songs.
Framing, supporting, and elaborating their straightforward acoustic dialogue are the atmospheric harmonies and lush chords provided by musicians Tony Garnier on upright and electric bass, M. Ward on electric guitar, Dónal Lunny on bouzouki, Róisin McGrory on strings, Chris Vatalaro on percussion and Alan Comerford on slide guitar. Their delicate, soulful contributions are adorned with spoken word fragments and field recordings, artificial interventions that color the bucolic soundscape with a slight tinge of psychedelic haziness, sometimes even dissolving into ambient interludes.
In “Cold Sea”, Leech departs from his ancestral origins, unraveling a haunting repertoire of lambent folk songs from the tangled labyrinth of his musical lineage.
The album emerges as an aural expanse haunted by guitar solos entwined with sparse synths and mournful strings.
A special mention must be made about the wonderful lyrics, which are unfailingly moving, tender, and wistful without ever manipulating the listener with cheap sentimentality.
Each song tells of an introverted, rueful narrative, successively unfolding like maps of existential exile, emotional tumult, grief as a privilege for once knowing love, and the elusive pursuit of healing after its loss. Radiating with the purity of intent and shimmering with heartfelt generosity, paired with somber melodies that seem to tremble before the cold allure of the ocean's embrace, the words are what make this a very special record, one I predict will become an instant classic and bodes auspiciously for the spectacular rise of a new singer-songwriter legend.
It is not frivolously that I say this is a record comparable with the work of legendary alt-folk artists, namely Nick Drake and Tim Buckley – it boasts the same emotional vulnerability, it shares the same insouciant self-absorption, it is meticulously irrelevant to the current context.
Leech himself says his favorite poet is Nobel Laureate Seamus Heaney, whose vivid imagery and simple language are obvious influences, speaking with the conviction of local observations so potent in their distilled truth that they achieve universality.
Feel locally, relate globally.
Text written by Panagiotis Chatzistefanou, Berlin, April 2024