Think of Lunasa as a dance band.
That might seem odd when you consider the 13-year-old Irish band is completely instrumental, but its up-tempo, hypnotic songs weave gentle webs around its audiences. That’s likely one reason songstress Natalie Merchant chose to work with the band on her first album in seven years, “Leave Your Sleep,” which was released earlier this week.
If you go
Lunasa
Where: The Birchmere, 3701 Mount Vernon Ave., Alexandria
When: 7:30 p.m. Friday
Info: $25; ticketmaster.com
“That was a very exciting venture,” fiddle player Sean Smyth said. “Natalie had come to see a concert of ours in Hawaii a few years back and she mentioned at the time we should work together. A few years later, I got an e-mail saying she was recording in upstate New York.” The band was on tour when it received the invitation — it tours much of every year — but soon headed to the studio in Rhinebeck, N.Y. Working with Merchant was an offer too exciting to pass up, Smyth said.
“It was a new venture,” Smyth said, noting many musicians contributed to Merchant’s new album. “Working with someone nationally renowned, of Natalie’s [stature] was a lovely experience for us.”
Not that the band is without its opportunities as shown by the four-year gap between albums.
Earlier this month, the band released “La Nua” (Irish for new day) its first new album since the 2006 release, “Se.”
But despite what some might theorize, Smyth said the lag between albums was not intentional.
“We were out there touring and playing as usual and … before we knew it, this period of time had passed,” Smyth said. “We decided to head to the studio.
“We didn’t want anything too different. We wanted to keep producing music as we had been, I suppose.”
A listen to the new album proves the band still has the magic touch that won it the moniker “the new god of Irish music.”
Yet Smyth modestly pushes the praise away noting the band’s music is for everyone.
“The first thing [audiences should know] is that they don’t need to know anything about traditional music to enjoy our shows,” he said. “If they enjoy a bit of good humor and some high-tempo music and laid back and soft tempo music, they’ll like it. When we’re making an album — good or bad — we’re always thinking about that.”
