2

The Gloaming 2 (also referred to as "2") is the second studio album by the contemporary Irish/American music group The Gloaming. It was released on February 26, 2016 on Real World Records, and on Brassland Records in America, Justin Time Records in Canada, and Planet Records in Australia. The album debuted at No.1 in the Irish Album Chart and was met with critical acclaim. Background and recording In an interview with the Irish Times in August 2014, fiddle player and band founder Martin Hayes said that the quintet were all eager to begin work on new material. In December 2015, The Gloaming entered Real World Studios in Wiltshire, England to record material that had mostly been written and previewed during the group’s 2015 touring schedule. Commenting at the time on the recording sessions, vocalist Iarla Ó Lionáird felt that a “stronger” record was being made to the band’s 2015 debut, and that while the group had not become completely removed from its “initial creative area”, something of a departure had been made. Hayes, meanwhile, said that the album had “more feeling” than its predecessor because the five individuals in the band had bonded more deeply in terms of a shared aesthetic in the interim period. Hayes added that the music on The Gloaming 2 possibly had a euphoric and joyful quality, a sentiment shared by bandmate and fellow fiddle player Caoimhín Ó Raghallaigh.