Dani Larkin sings ‘She Moved Through the Fair’, reeling with the fever and surprise in the words. It’s a story of intense attraction but it also hints at a love affair that may not be realised in this world.
The ghostly aspect of this trad tune is joined by another presence – the sound of a field recording that Dani made in Nablus, Palestine, in 2016. We shiver as the noises converge.
Dani Larkin by Stuart Bailie
Then she sings one of her older songs, ‘The Mother Within’ and again, it’s a great lament that troubles your soul before your head can make any sense of it. It’s the Larkin method. The banjo notes are brittle while the artist tries to contact a maternal Fate, an archetype:
“I’ve heard, the battle cry.
I’ve seen love die
If there is a God, up on high, let her fly.”
We’re in the campus of the SRC Music Department in Armagh. It gleams with performance spaces, rehearsal units, a mixing room and a dance studio. Everything connects; the ethernet meshes the media parts and a student initiative called Factory 61 aims to put a real world focus on the academic training. It’s a gig, an experience, a promotion.
Dani was raised in the Armagh-Monaghan borderlands, so this is her patch. She’s come here for a podcast, a Q&A plus some live songs. The students can get their tech capacity on the college syllabus but today’s lesson is an actual artist, wayward and enthralling.
Dani Larkin by Stuart Bailie
We know that the words of ‘Bloodthirsty’ are going to lead us into the forest where a life-changing rite happens in the moonlight. Dani’s first album, Notes for A Maiden Warrior was pegged out with myths and Celtic cosmology. Sure enough, the coming season of Ibolc has just banished the winter and ushered in a new record release. So where now?
Interestingly, the latest song is called ‘David’ and the attention shifts from the forest floor to the starry firmament. Dani is remembering a source of youthful wonder, a deliverance from the teenage circuit of hang-outs and old flames. There is an evening bike ride plus the suggestion that something transformative is just out of reach. But before that can happen, a deal of growing up needs to occur.
Mention of the bike ride gets me thinking of the cinema moment when E.T. and Elliott touch fingers. But most of all, I think of the David Bowie song, ‘Starman’, when the alien visitor is a peripheral voice, worried that his early arrival might blow the minds of the under-evolved earthlings.
Maybe I’m reading too much into all this, but I think ‘David’ is also about reaching out for the unknown and the way to individuation. When I ask Dani about the Bowie theory, she laughs and deflects. She doesn’t care to get specific. Whatever, it’s a good time to shine.
Stuart Bailie
(‘David’ by Dani Larkin is available now on Bandcamp.)
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