In her solo work, Bronagh explores the intersection of poetry and melody, sounding the edges of voice and cello to rediscover ancestral songlines. REWILDING is out in June. Inspired by ritual song and deep listening, incantatory lyrics meet a stirring symbiosis between voice and cello, inviting us to tread the wild path back to ourselves once more.
Bronagh’s musical trajectory spans electronica to acoustic, blending Mediterranean textures from her adopted island Sicily with melodies carried in her Irish roots. She has had the privilege of working with world-renowned producers and has performed on stage with extraordinary musicians from across the globe.
REWILDING comes out of a deep connection to earth and water, passes through the metaphorical fork in the moss-drenched forest, invokes the purest mountain air and takes us to the edge of female desire. It tells stories of love and disenchantment that come from the womb, the volcano and the full moon.
REWILDING knows this: scratch beneath the surface and you will find we all want to be wild again.
Tá súil agam
Tá súil agam… (I have hope)
maithim duit (I forgive you)
MOTHER I FEEL YOU
(Windsong Martin)
Mother I feel you under my feet
Mother I hear your heart beat
Mother I hear you in the river song
Eternal waters flowing on and on
Father I see you when the eagle flies
Light up the spirit, going to take us higher
Spotify
Bandcamp
Apple Music
Tidal
YouTubeJOURNEY
I am going on a journey, I must find the sea for me
The sea is the sound of my life, I follow the sound to find my way
I am going on a journey, don’t know where the end will be
First I’ll follow the sound of the sea, so I’ll find my destiny
To see all I need to see, to do all I need to do
To be all I need to be, so I can find the sea for me
I am going on a journey, faraway lands are calling me
I can hear the sound of the sea, to find my home that’s where I’ll be
I am going on a journey, faraway lands are calling me
I can hear the sound of the sea, to find my home that’s where I’ll be
To see all I need to see, to do all I need to do
To be all I need to be, so I can find the sea for me
I am going on a journey, I know where the end will be
First I’ll follow the sound of the sea, so I’ll find my destiny
IMBAS FOROSNAI
Ar thaobh eile den eagla, tá Saoirse (On the other side of fear lies freedom)
Bláthú…. Ta mé i dtúin (Bloom… I’m in tune)
Ceól Suaimhneasach (Soothing song)
Tá mé i m’aonor …I am in my aloneness | darkness
Is mise grá mór, Is mise… great mystery
Ceól Suaimhneasach
An gcanfaidh tú, mo chroí?
Will you sing, my love?
LOVESONG
Eyes half-crazed, World is ablaze
Slide down walls to loosen confines
Back from unadulterated night
Fingertips trace questions on skin
Eyes half crazed, world is ablaze
Bask in the fascinating grace
Answers get caught in a throat
Unforgettable the way she takes
Wake to long lost song-ache
A way to maddening beauty
Eyes half-crazed, world is ablaze
Spring tide at dawn
An appropriate way to be damned
Does she give a damn?
Drowning in it she’s saved
Luxuriates … in an abundance of blue
Over truth outpouring
Eyes half-crazed, world is ablaze
Waves and waves break and break
Waves and waves break and break
~~~
Love song, love, let me sing my love song
Love song, love, listen to my love song
Lovesong, love, let me sing my lovesong
Lovesong, love listen to my moonsong
Moonsong, moon, listen to my moonsong
Moonsong moon, let me sing my moonsong
Moonsong, moon, listen to my moon, my moon, my moon
My moon…. Let me tell my wombsong
Wombsong, womb, listen to my womb
Wombsong womb, listen to my womb
Womb, listen to my womb, my womb, my womb,
My womb… This is just a love song…
Love song, love … let me sing my love
Love song love… listen to my love
Love … let me sing my love, my love, my love
My love. This is just a love song
~~~
Eyes half crazed, world is ablaze,
Waves and waves break and break
Waves and waves break and break
BLACK IS THE COLOUR
Black is the colour of my true love’s hair
His lips are like some roses fair
He has the sweetest smile and the gentlest hands
And I love the ground whereon he stands
I love my lover, and well he knows
I love the ground whereon he goes
I wish the day it soon would come
When he and I would be as one
I go the river and I mourn and weep
For satisfied I never can be
I write him a letter, just a few short lines
And suffer death, a thousand times.
Black is the colour of my true love’s hair
His lips are like some roses fair
He has the sweetest smile and the gentlest hands
And I love the ground whereon he stands.
TIME TO BE WILD
It’s hard to do right all the time but I’m not looking for approval
Can’t follow the rules every single time, but I’m not seeking their removal
There’s a fork in the forest and a house with open doors
Take the road less travelled, know the choice is yours.
Your fingers struck the right note with their perfect pitch
And those words I never heard before stuck in a glitch
There’s a note in my head sounding way too long
And all sense of direction is completely gone
The house is sleeping, all the lights are out.
From the darkness there comes an unquiet doubt
Mother sister lover daughter friend and soulmate
And the fire in my head is keeping me awake
Uninvited invader unexpected guest
You colonised my mind opened pandora’s chest
If there’s one thing I’ve learned in this whole world wide,
There’s a time to be wise, and a time to be wild.
*
Dance first and think later, the great man said
Dance first and think later, Samuel Beckett said
And that’s alright when it’s in my head, in my head
But when it’s in my bed it’s a wild thing
What I’m looking for now is purity of intention
And what I’m needing now is unwavering attention
Are you listening close, listening close, listening close
to your heartbeat next to mine?
And if you’re still here, hear me …
The conditions are three:
Can you make me laugh till I cry?
Can you make me cry… with your artistry, your artistry?
And then can you bring me a bottle of the purest air
From the highest peak… and pour it down my throat until I sing in ecstasy?
Dance first and think later, the great man said
Dance first and think later, Samuel Beckett said
And that’s alright when it’s in my head…but when it’s in my bed it’s a wild thing
And if there’s one thing I’ve learned in the whole world wide, it’s this:
There’s a time to be wise… And a time to be wild!
PURPLE
Sitting in the silent twilight
The purple half-light of the twilight
Wrap the night around me
Blanket of black on my back
I feel safe in the darkness
Your voice is a caress, delights my senses
Heightens my happiness, lightens my sadness
Your eyes were on me, I remember, those days in September
Sunset round nine, your hand held in mine
I see no poetry in your face, only a night of dark verses
That haunt me in the pitch of night, when my sleepless eyes see no closing time
I tiptoe through the black and repercussions like percussion
Tap a demented melody in my head.
I would like to share this emptiness with you, I would sell you a piece of this void.
I would open the blind eyes of you, your blank eyes that shoot as far as the nearest target
That’s what you do, you step on the broken shards.
This core of darkness could go anywhere
I stretch out my arms, but they remain empty
The silence is so loud I almost feel it
Nothing to say now, barely can talk now
I’m feeling like I’m lost I’m feeling dumb, speechless and numb
So long I’ve been blind I’m losing my mind
Sitting in the silent twilight
The purple half light of the twilight
Wrap the night around me
Blanket of black on my back
I feel safe in the darkness
Sitting in the silent twilight rapture
Would it be too hard to capture
This velvet moment of serenity?
MUJERES
No ocean ever refused a river
No ocean ever refused a river.
Like everywhere a restless girl is staring at the full moon
A woman knows the river in her blood
A woman knows the river in her blood, in her blood
A woman knows the river in her blood.
I want to lay my body on the river’s stones, the river’s bones
I want to lay my body on the river’s… stones
I want to feel the river flowing over me, through me
A woman knows the river in her bones.
Let me be the river flowing over you, over you.
A woman knows the river in her blood.
The ocean is the beginning of the earth
All life comes from the sea
One life to follow the sea, one life to flow back to me
One life to follow the sea, one life to find the truth of me
We let the healing song begin
We let the healing water in…
La luna sale la noche, El cielo espera su luz
La marea se viene y se va, Las mujeres levantan la voz
La luna sale la noche, mi niña empieza a cantar
el viento se viene y se va, el río se oye susurrar
LA LUNA SALE, LA LUNA SALE
LAS MUJERES LEVANTAN LA VOZ
Fimina, fimina fimina fimina
Mná mná mná mná
La luna sale la noche, mi niño empieza a cantar
el viento se viene y se va, tengo ganas de bailar
La luna sale la noche, el cielo espera su luz
La marea se viene y se va, Las mujeres levantan la voz
LA LUNA SALE, LA LUNA SALE
LAS MUJERES LEVANTAN LA VOZ
SILKEN LIKE WATER
Wordlessly she walks to the river
Soundlessly she slips inside
Willingly she lets her body ride the current
Her skin is silken like water
One drop is all it takes to quench the fire
One drop is all it takes to reach my Self, that is higher
Lover to lover condensing on the flame of desire
And our breath … is sweeter than water
UISCE MILIS ~
Wordlessly she walks to the forest
Soundlessly she slips inside
Willingly … she lets her hair weave with leaves
Her skin… is silken like water
One drop is all it takes to quench the fire
One drop is all it takes to reach my Self, that is higher
Lover to lover we’re dancing on the wave of desire
And our scent … is sweeter than water
UISCE MILIS ~
Wordlessly she walks to the jungle
Soundlessly she slips inside
Willingly she goes tribal
Her skin… is silken like water
One drop is all it takes to quench the fire
One drop is all it takes to reach my Self.. that is higher
Lover my love, the state I’m in …. I gotta get to the river
And my skin, and oh her skin…. is sweeter than water
UISCE MILIS ~
Bronagh is also cellist with the Sicilian ensemble Alkantara MediOrkestra, with whom she has participated in many festivals such as Festival Adriatico Mediterraneo, Ethnos Festival, Mediterraneo Jazz di Curva Minore and the Alkantara Fest. She performs on the ensemble’s current release, JazzBound.
Bronagh Slevin 
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