Irish Times reviews Casement Sonata: “a strange and rare gift”
Malcolm MacClancy discusses Gavin Friday’s The Casement Sonata in today’s The Irish Times. He writes:
“The Casement Sonata lies in a submerged tradition of modern Irish letters that includes Patrick Kavanagh’s Lough Derg as well as Eugene Watters’ The Week-End of Dermot and Grace (when will some clever radio producer finally stumble across this sonic gem from 1964?). At the same time, it reflects and expands upon Gavin Friday‘s 2011 album catholic. That album’s artwork featured Friday’s uncanny re-enactment of Sir John Lavery’s iconic death portrait of Michael Collins. It is no coincidence, for example, that the Sonata is aired in the Hugh Lane Gallery, alongside Lavery’s dramatic portrayal of the Casement trial, High Treason. It is also highly appropriate that the artwork accompanying the new recording should prefigure Casement as a Dada-esque head complete with attendant mosquitoes. 1916 was a year of not only historical but also artistic revolution, the original punk rebellion if you will.”
The review includes “Easter Rising” a ‘bonus track’, not included in the Hugh Lane installation.