Landless – Caoin (from the album Bleaching bones, Humble Serpent)

A spellbinding a capella lament from four young women based between Belfast and Dublin.

Ghostly trails of natural reverb hang from long wordless vocal drones.

It is traditional but there’s a strong element of avant garde about the treatment.

Dissonance. Bent notes. Every audible breath put to use.

Medieval sacred choral music comes to mind.

Folk music of unknown provenance is invoked.

Bulgarian female choirs maybe.

The sigh of existence.