Eleanora

"Lamentations of An Bhean Si is the vinylization of the debut album, first issued [2025] as a cassette, by the Oakland-based harpist Eleanor Denison. Denison trained as a classical harpist, before dropping out to play more informally and pursue an agrarian lifestyle near where the White River joins the Connecticut River Valley in central Vermont. She returned to the Boston area in 2023, at which point she began developing a new avant-pop approach to her instrument. Using a loop pedal and a delay pedal, her playing mixed composed bits with pure improvisation. Denison played regular live shows, on bills with artists from across the folk, avant and post-indie spectrum, but the only known documentation of her work prior to Lamentations of An Bhean Si is a cassette issued by the trio, Janet Fang, of which she was a member. Since relocating to California she has been playing solo, employing a unique approach that creates beautifully mutating fields of sound and vision displaying elements of everything from traditional Celtic melodicism to 'found vocals' in the musique concret tradition. The pieces on which Eleanora employs insertions from New Age spoken word tapes have a vastly weird and original flavor, although their vibe is something like a triangulated point equidistant from Mary Lattimore, Yaara Valey and PG Six. Eleanora's sound exists in a universe where ancestral Irish dolor, New Age illumination and experimental techniques unite in glowing web of sound. It is music that, in the words of Beefheart, comes 'from the other side of the fence.' And it is truly a wonderful record to behear. I envy you your first spin of Lamentations of An Bhean Si. And am certain it will be but the first of many." - Byron Coley, 2026