No Irish traditional band in the last dozen years has had a wider impact on audiences and music lovers throughout the world than Altan. With Guest Fiddler: Clare Friel

Altan has moved audiences from Donegal to Tokyo to Seattle with their exquisitely produced award-winning recordings and their heartwarming, dynamic live performances. Ranging dynamically from the most sensitive and touching old Irish songs all the way to hard hitting reels and jigs, Altan is committed to bringing the beauty of traditional music, particularly that of the Donegal fiddlers and singers, to contemporary audiences. Altan believes that Irish traditional music is modern music in every sense and its growing popularity proves them right.

After three decades of playing on stages all over the world, Altan went back to the hills of Donegal to record their new album, ‘The Gap of Dreams.’ The 13 track album transports the listener back to a time before electricity when folks would gather together in the mists of winter to tell stories, sing songs and dance into the wee hours of the night.

The music lifted the locals’ spirits and elevated them beyond the hardships of the day like famine, conflict, and emigration. It is this spirit that informed the development of the band through their many phases of growth, from a duo performing in pubs to international touring and recording artists.