An Cat Dubh light – Why "light"?

Alongside our full five-piece shows, An Cat Dubh also perform with a smaller line-up whenever the venue or the band's schedules call for it.

Anyone who has been inside a few pubs knows that in some of them, finding room to set up a drum kit can be quite a challenge.

The standard line-up is:

Olaf on acoustic guitar
Anand on acoustic guitar and mandolin (yes... he uses his effects board here, too) – and shakes his hair around
Daniel does pretty much what he always does
(Matthias on guitar, accordion and flutes is an optional addition)

And, as always with An Cat Dubh: heavenly vocal harmonies. We've often been called the Bee Gees of Darmstadt (if you get that reference, congratulations – you're officially old).

Many songs in the full band's repertoire, however, call for the complete band instrumentation, including drums, keyboards, flutes, electric bagpipes and the like.

That's why the smaller line-up, which has appeared in various formations ranging from two to four musicians, performs a different programme with a particularly strong emphasis on traditional songs.

The album "An Cat Dubh light" offers exactly what you can expect from an intimate pub gig with An Cat Dubh light. Plenty of fun and exuberant energy, combined with a spontaneity and rough-edged feel that set it apart from our previous studio productions.

Time and again, people at our gigs asked us which CD featured the largest number of traditional songs. We always gave them an answer, of course – although it was usually improvised, because none of the previous An Cat Dubh albums contained much from our smaller line-up's repertoire.

Eventually, we became convinced that recording an album with the smaller line-up would make sense. After all, it shouldn't be quite as involved as a full-blown production, and it would give many of our fans exactly what they had been asking for.

We seriously underestimated the actual effort involved in making the album, but the result turned out just as we had imagined.

So, how did the "Light" album come about?

In June 2003, Daniel, Olaf and Anand set off for Remoncourt in France to visit their longtime friend and fellow musician Robert Hancock. The plan was to record enough material for an album in just three days, if possible.

The basic tracks for all the songs were recorded live. The bodhrán, along with some instrumental solos and backing vocals, was added later in a few cases.

Apart from making plenty of music, there was also a great deal of culinary indulgence in Remoncourt. When in France, you simply have to enjoy the food... We hope you can hear just how thoroughly contented we were on the album!

And here are four more outtakes from the final production party... work: