Allt
King’s Place, London

 
ALTHOUGH Allt are not officially a band, they’re certainly a real thing, formed as a collaboration between two married couples – Julie Fowlis and Eamonn Doorley and Zoë Cowley and John McIntyre – to set Gaelic and Irish poetry to their own music.  
 
Borrowing their name from the title of the album they created together in 2018, they’ve been continuing to work on that project during the hiatus of Covid, sending material back and forth to each other remotely.  
 
Now they’re savouring the chance to spark off one another in person and to showcase their material for the first time to a real live audience.
 
Led by the crystal clear voices of Fowlis and Cowley, who also provide captivating accompaniment on the whistle and fiddle respectively, all of their songs are in Gaelic and all except one are their own compositions.
 
Most are also from that 2018 album, among the highlights of which are the haunting Faoiseamh a Gheobhadsa, with McIntyre and Doorley working in subtle harmony on guitar and bouzouki while Fowlis beautifully interprets the words of Mairtin O’Direain’s poem about the joys of returning home.  
 
There’s also An Ghaelige, a gentle tribute to the beauty of the Irish language sung by McIntyre; Port Dannsaidh Hiortach, inspired by words from St Kilda, and Piuthrag Nam Piuth’r, a melancholy but ultimately comforting song fashioned from an old poem about two sisters separated by death.  
 
In addition there are a couple of outings for new tunes, including a song just recently commissioned by the Royal Irish Academy to celebrate the 1,500th anniversary of the birth of St Columba, and La Alainn, a delicious four-part harmony.
 
Allt is likely only to be a fluid side project for each of its members, especially Fowlis, who has a finger in many other folk-related pies. But as this fulfilling evening proved, it’s an entirely valid enterprise nonetheless, and let’s hope it produces at least another album or two.