bands
NOCROWS
NoCrows is probably the most eclectic band I have ever been involved with. We’re together since 2005 and you’ll find details of our origins at the end of the BIO section in this site. We play a very diverse repertoire with influences from classical, jazz, folk and Irish traditional music. We define ourselves as ‘a multicultural string orchestra playing folk from around the world’ but it took us ages to come up with something so vague and at the same time so true. We started playing movies themes and folk tunes from different countries. From the theme of The Godfather or Cinema Paradiso to tunes from Portugal, England, Italy, Ireland (of course), Moldova, Russia, Germany or Venezuela. From the second album onwards we started to write most of the tunes ourselves and today, original material is 90% of our concerts.
We tour regularly in different European countries, have played in several major festivals, including Glastonbury and Dranouter Folk Festival and we sell our music worldwide. You will find our latest album on Bandcamp and you can stream the rest of our music from the usual digital platforms.
The current line up of the band is: Anna Houston (mandolin & cello), Steve Wickham (violin & vocals), Eddie Lee (double bass), Oleg Ponomarev (violin), Ray Coen (guitar & vocals) and Felip Carbonell (guitar & vocals).
Check more info on www.nocrows.net
solo
I don’t particularly like playing on my own, though I still do the odd time. Music is a language, a form of communication between performers and audience and the best fun, from my point of view, is playing together with other people with whom you can establish a conversation. But playing solo doesn’t mean necessarily playing on your own. Below there is a list of stuff I did or I’m doing “solo” with other artists.
I started writing at the age of 13 and have written probably close to 100 songs. Most of them ended up in the bin and I’m happy to say I have forgotten them. Some of them though, I had kept for many years waiting for the right time to see the light. The time arrived in 2015 with my solo debut double CD Els Colors Del Temps.
Before the album was released, during all those years waiting, I had the privilege of recording and publishing 6 of my works. In 1990 with Tumbet, I recorded Fer Cantó for the compilation album of the VIII Concurs de Pop Rock; in 1995, Xesc Carbonell and I recorded Pais de la Felicitat for Conciertos y Desconciertos en Sa Finestra compilation album. In 1993, Tumbet’s demo untitled ‘A la fi’ included 7 of my songs but they were never released commercially, so they don’t count. After my move to Ireland, my instrumental piece Finn’s Waltz was published in 2003 by Whirling Discs on the compilation album Simpatico. In 2008 our band NoCrows brought out the album Magpie which includes my song Ai, mu mare. In 2013, Sligo pianist Kieran Quinn brought out his debut album including Entre tu i jo, another one of my songs. Several other instrumental pieces written by myself form part of the recorded repertoire of NoCrows.
As a session guitarist, I have been working through the years with several singers and songwriters like Siofra Jordan (AKA FeeF), Rosena Horan and particularly with Amy O’Hara on her beautiful album A Blue I Can’t Describe. Check it out on Bandcamp.
In more recent times I had the privilege to perform some classical repertoire with the Sligo Baroque Orchestra and in 2025 I was asked to be the soloist guitarist for the Sligo and Dublin launches of the album Snow on the River by Scottish composer Oscar McLennan with arrangements by Martin Tourish. Their work is absolutely gorgeous and I had the chance to experience playing live with a brass quartet from Italy, a string quartet from Sligo, Martin himself on accordion and Siobhan Buckley on harp.
The latest of my musical adventures has brought me back to my electric guitar days on a very promising collaboration with poet and Hip-Hop artist J-Scribe the Journeyman from California, USA and DJ Dromelab from Amsterdam, Holland. The act goes under the name Beautiful Decay. Recordings on the horizon, so watch this space.
ANNA HOUSTON & FELIP CARBONELL
My NoCrows bandmate Anna Houston and I play regularly as a duo in small venues in Sligo and elsewhere in Ireland. Our repertoire has the same folk approach as NoCrows but expands more into classical and world music, specially that of South America. The sounds of Anna’s cello and mandolin combine very well with those of my classical and electric guitars and we often bring audiences onto a musical journey that makes us all feel we’re on a holiday.
LATIN TRIO (EDDIE MCFARLANE, EDDIE LYNCH & FELIP CARBONELL)
For many years now, I have been working in different projects with these legendary gentlemen and extraordinary musicians: Eddie Lynch on keyboard and Eddie McFarlane on guitar. Either in duo format with either of them or in my favourite trio format, it’s an absolute pleasure to share music with these two wonderful Donegal guys. We play Latin and Jazz standards with a very unique style and we add a few songs from Cuba or Catalonia to give our performances a very festive and upbeat vibe.
rumbatism
If I’m not mistaken it was in the summer of 2005, as part of the 2nd edition of the Strandhill Guitar Festival, that my fellow festival organisers Gerry Grennan and Seamie O’Dowd suggested the possibility of a small gig in The Strand Bar featuring the very first collaboration between the maestro virtuoso guitarist Mike Nielsen and… yeah, myself. I knew of Mike’s tremendous musicianship long before that but I had never spoken to him in my life before that day, never mind playing with him. Terribly nervous. here I was heading down to The Strand to meet the genius that is Mike Nielsen wondering what the hell were we going to play. Two guys with two classical guitars? The result was one of the most amazing musical experiences I ever had to this day (only comparable to the time we played with Angel and Rolando of the Buena Vista Social Club in that very same room). Anyway, the sparks and musical communication were fantastic and Mike managed to get out of my humble guitar some of the best notes I ever played. Some years later he confessed to me that he was as nervous as myself about meeting and playing with this ‘real Spanish guitarist’ as if I was a threat to his enormous talent. We had a good laugh about it.
That brilliant experience brought us to form a quintet, alongside Eddie McFarlane (also on classical guitar), Eddie Lee (double bass) and Ken ‘Tonto’ McDonald (percussion). The band’s motto is ‘everything is rumbable’ (hence the band’s name) and the repertoire is based on Standard and Latin Jazz meets rumba with a flamenco feel. Did you ever think you could dance to Miles Davis with a Catalan Rumba beat? You should try it.
THE CARBONELL SISTERS
These are my two daughters Maria and Deia, the best things in the world and my pride in life. Either with one of them or with both, we get together for a few songs as often as we can. I keep telling them they need to find a younger accompanist but, so far, they keep calling me (the ugly sister) up to play with them. I can’t refuse.
Their sibling’s harmonies are unique and totally natural to them. They know each other inside out and that translates into their singing in a very spectacular way. And yes, of course I’m biased. Maria Carbonell has a degree in songwriting and has released a couple of songs on streaming platforms (Imaginary Rain and This Christmas). Do check her out.
THE TROUBADOUR MULES
Actor, musician and multifaceted artist Miquel Barceló moved from Mallorca to the West of Ireland in the year 2000, two years after I did. We had common friends in Mallorca but we met for the first time in a pub in Sligo in May 2000. Some craic. Once the friendship was established, it was only a matter of time for some form of collaboration between the two of us to happen. Our first project together was Fishtale, a children theatre piece written by Miquel that we toured for a while. But soon after this, it was obvious that we had to create some other musical concoction addressing an adult audience. It was the start of The Troubador Mules (or Els Muls Trobadors in Catalan).
This is an extract of our résumé:
‘Born and bred in a Mediterranean farm, fed with ROOTS music and spectacle of their homeland, they are modern inheritors of the RHYTHM and FOOLERY of their ancestors, well mixed with hot and exotic spices from new lands. The Mules, Felip Carbonell and Miquel Barceló, are a hybrid off-spring duo long time emigrated from their sunny Mallorca. Destination: rainy Ireland, where they have teamed-up with two native mules, (Eddie McFarlane and Ken ‘Tonto’ McDonald), improving the groove features of the animal. From port to port, like wandering minstrels, they sing, dance, improvise and fabulate with the rough poetry of the common people searching to spread the universal spirit of celebration’.
We sing songs in 7 different languages in a musical journey from the Mediterranean shores of South Italy, Catalonia and Occitania, to the Atlantic waters of Portugal, Cuba, Mexico, Texas and Louisiana. And we make people dance even when they don’t want to.
Duo Compello
I met classical violinist Nicola Cleary for the first time around 2008 when playing together in The Vendetta Orchestra. She had recently moved to Sligo then and was looking for new musical challenges. The Orchestra was very lucky to get such a talented addition. A year later I remember being in the car driving to Glastonbury with NoCrows when I got a call from Nicola suggesting the possibility of doing a bit of work as a duo…a mix of classical and Latin tunes. ‘Wow…but Nicola, I’ve no classical skills whatsoever’, said I. ‘Don’t worry, we’re all learning every day’, said she.
And that was how we started Duo Compello and how I started getting familiar with the works of Paganini, Fritz Kreisler or Vivaldi and how Nicola got to know the works of Jobim or Carlos Gardel. We mainly played private functions, receptions and civil and religious weddings.
Here is an excerpt of our blurb:
‘Duo Compello was formed in 2010 to bring the sounds of the violin and guitar repertoire to audiences around the country. The mix in performing a range music from classical works to modern tango music never fails to entertain. The skill and commitment in each performance from these two musicians brings the listener on a journey through centuries of musical pictures and emotions.
Whether you are looking for classical wedding ceremony music, mellow background music for a reception, tango and Latin performance for a venue, Duo Compello can meet any needs you have for an event’.
ELS COLORS DEL TEMPS
In 2015 I finally brought out my double solo album Els Colors del Temps (The Colours of Time), a project that took 4 years, 17 musicians and was recorded and produced in 3 different countries. The shows we put together back then were an absolutely marvellous experience but it would cost a lot of money to reproduce the full sound again. I don’t have it. If you do, give us a shout because I’m mad to gather that bunch again.
The first CD features Anna Houston and Kieran Quinn and was recorded in Ireland, between Brian McDonagh’s studio The Magic Room and Urs Lanz’s Doolittle Recording . The second CD features my old band Tumbet and was recorded by our old buddy Toni Reynés (R.I.P.) in Ca n’Estrella, Mallorca. The 2 albums were produced by Urs Lanz with a little help from myself.
felip carbonell rumba experience
In 2024 I put together this 12 piece band playing Catalan Rumba, mainly the repertoire of Gato Pérez. The complexities of keeping up with a large line up made the experience’s life shorter than we wished (less than a year, but what a year!). We sold out the Hawk’s Well Theatre in Sligo and -thanks to the Spanish Embassy in Ireland- we played in Hugh Lane Gallery in Dublin for the closing ceremony of Andy Warhol’s exhibition amongst other wonderful events.
AYE SURELY
Anna Houston, Ray Coen and me tried to find a market for some of the material that didnt fit in with our bigger band NoCrows. Our repertoire had obvious similarities in style with the ‘big sister’ but we managed to create a new sound that simplified matters while still keeping that stringy, folkie Irish vibe with more Latin and classical influences. You could expect new original compositions by all three of us, tangos, a touch of flamenco, and modern approaches to the works of Mozart, O’Carolan or Bizet.
the vendetta orchestra
In 2007 or so, a bunch of lunatics based between Dublin, Galway, Clare and Sligo got together with the idea of performing original songs inspired by Der Struwwelpetter, a book of fairy tales written in Germany in 1845 by Heinrich Hoffmann.
Ginger O’Keeffe and Paul Laffan wrote the music and the words of 10 songs based on the 10 original stories. Myself and Anna Houston joined in shortly and went on to record the band’s debut album ‘All God’s children’ in 2009.
‘Fantastically gore’ wrote a critic… The stage theatrical performance was a very important part of the essence of this band. Sometimes a 4 piece, sometimes a 10 piece band, you never knew what to expect of this crazy band. Neither did we. We were invited to perform in Switzerland in 2012 and 2013 and we dissolved before the release of the second album which would have been inspired by French chanson.
Miss the Vendetta at your own peril…
Lampenfeber Jazz
Lampenfeber Jazz was the adventure of my good pal Jim Meehan (this act is no longer active since his decease in 2022). As a duo or joined by double bassist Peter Doherty and percussionist Ken ‘Tonto’ McDonald, this band’s worked with the old time jazz standards but with a closer look at the Dixieland and New Orleans sounds with inclusion of an odd banjo tune. My job in this outfit was still the nylon-string guitar, although I was tempted to give the 5 strings banjo a try, to see if we could get something with the Duelling Banjos vibe.