Margie Butler
Celtic Harp

Celtic Harp - what could this album possibly be? Simply a surprise.

Let's go in order, first of all it is legitimate to ask: who is this Margie Butler, whom I found out about by chance more than a year ago? She is an Irish musical artist, understandably unknown to most, but very well-known in the new age and world music scene as a harpist. According to numerous promotional snippets, it is revealed that her father was a famous tenor (unfortunately, I couldn't trace the name), a factor that allowed Margie to live in close contact with the musical scene of the Emerald Isle, thus allowing her to develop a keen sensitivity towards traditional Celtic melodies. Throughout her career, she has composed both solo albums and with the Golden Buogh, presenting a combination of her own songs and reinterpretations of pieces not only from Irish, but also Breton, Scottish, and English traditions.

The inputs are therefore more than good, but it must be said that the artist's works do not always turn out to be particularly exciting: I've had the chance to listen to two other albums, Carolan's Draught and Lure of the Sea Maiden, and I must say that unfortunately they don't go beyond the dimension of static atmospheric folk without interesting insights, so much so that they could be considered at times as mere (as it is vulgarly defined) "supermarket new age," ambient music peddled as "beneficial," cultured, and cosmopolitan, which instead results in a series of insipid and tiring lullabies.

So then why four "stars" for Celtic Harp? After all, on the surface, the elements to catalog it as a dud are there, between the absolutely anonymous title, the artist's unfamiliarity, and the sense of marching commercialism that lingers all around. Yet the result is surprisingly complete: this album, completely instrumental, can rely not only on consistently adequate production but also on excellent compositional quality that allows the tracks to maintain the hypnotic sweetness of Celtic music without becoming repetitive. Margie's fingers flow agilely and confidently over the harp strings, whose bright and ethereal timbre paints landscapes now delicately joyful, now more majestic and ethereal, such as Snow Geese, The Hills of Ireland, and Alalas das Marinas, perfect musical transpositions of the view of a lush and mysterious northern landscape. Other instruments, including the violin and Irish flute, also figure prominently, skillfully accompanying Butler's melodies, lending body and fullness to the arrangements.

How then to perceive this album? I would say it is a demonstration of how, even from a context usually so unreliable as ambient/new age with a commercial character, small gems can come to light: an unexpectedly fresh and convincing work that I warmly recommend to those who appreciate international folk or just want to be lulled for an hour by the magical and dreamy charm of Irish music.