The Clearing: Dréos - Eliot Grasso

Dréos is an ensemble of performing composers who invent and arrange new and old music using a traditional vocabulary. The word “Dréos” comes from Scottish Gaelic, and translates into the English word “blaze.” Together in the studio for the first time, their debut recording was released in October 2015.

Genesis: An instant, uncanny artistic chemistry was clear from the moment Eliot and Brandon first played together, years ago at a Friday Harbor festival in Washington State. This meeting would be remembered. For a time, they parted ways, their musical and academic careers propelling them along parallel tracks in different parts of the world. Brandon left the Pacific Northwest to study violin performance at the Cleveland Institute of Music, and Eliot headed off to pursue degrees in ethnomusicology and musicology at the University of Limerick and University of Oregon. Despite these divergent paths, Brandon and Eliot kept in contact, and in February 2014, they convened in Eugene, Oregon, with accompanist Glen Waddell to perform in Beall Hall at the University of Oregon. That musical reunion ignited a performing and recording venture, of which this album is a kind of firstfruit.

Tracks:

1. Strathspey & Reels: Devil in the Kitchen/Tie the Bonnet/The Sound of Mull 
2. Jigs: The Empty Tomb*/Samuel’s Grand Entrance*/Old Cape Hatteras* 
3. Waltz: The Clearing§ 
4. Waltz: Silver Trees* 
5. Slip Jig & Jigs: Erin’s§/Caitlin’s Jig§/Brown Ale 
6. Song: She Moved Through the Fair 
7. Jigs: The Empty Bookcase*/The Lights of Limerick*/The Pepper Man* 
8. Reels: Weaving to Friday Harbor*/Andrew Dewberry’s*/Ellie’s New Hat* 
9. Air: Day Dawn 
10. Air: Boundless* 
11. Highland Strathspey, Strathspey, & Reel: Rebecca’s Highland Fling§/Winter Welcome§/Itchy Feet§ 
12. Marches: The Battle of Waterloo/O’Neill’s Cavalcade/Bonaparte Crossing the Alps 
13. Strathspey & Reels: Islenska§/Flight of the Penguins§/Dancin’ Thro’ the Gates§ 14. Reel: The Clumsy Lover 

Total Running Time 63:00

* = composed by Eliot Grasso
§ = composed by Brandon Vance