Following on from his debut release “Good Day Senor” in 2015, musician and songwriter Conor O’Sullivan has just released his second solo album “The Inbetween”. This offering like its predecessor contains a mixture of self penned songs and instrumental compositions as well as a cover of the Dominic Beehan song “Crooked Jack”.

The album also sees Conor taking on the role of producer for the first time. In his own words, “I’ve been involved in many recording sessions over the last number of years playing many different styles and instruments so I felt I had enough confidence and experience to produce this record myself”.                                        

The recording was done in Conor’s home just outside Cork city where he set up a small studio and features many of the same musicians that can be found on “Good Day Senor”. Martin Brunsden returns on double bass, Martin Leahy on drums, Nigel Grufferty on fiddle, Isaac Alderson on flute, and Mick Daly on vocals. Other contributors include Brendan Clancy on fiddle and Barry O’Shea on bowed bass.

Conor himself can be heard on various stringed instruments and uses them to great effect managing to create a certain soundscape in which to present these compositions. The music itself takes its time, it demands attention from the listener. There are tales of star crossed lovers and solitary characters whose hard bitten lives we only get a small glimpse of. “The mood of the album is quite intentional, most of the work was done late at night in a very relaxed environment so I wanted that to come across as much as possible”.

The material here is a combination of old and new, “I saw this recording as a chance to finish off some pieces that had been hanging around for quite a while”. One track of note “On the Road” in fact first appeared on an album in 2011 when Conor was part of folk quartet Deluce’s Patent. “We recorded that song in 2011 but I felt that it could have been done a number of ways so I decided to give it a different treatment this time around, it’s always enjoyable reworking a song and trying to improve on it, so hopefully I managed to do that”.

“The Inbetween” sees Conor O’Sullivan continuing from where his debut album “Good Day Senor” left off however it is evident that he has settled into his own sound more comfortably here and the result is a very fine album.     

“The Inbetween” from Conor O’Sullivan is available now from www.conorosullivanmusic.com