RÓIS – MO LÉAN
In the singular work of Dublin-based composer, vocalist and multi-instrumentalist RÓIS, the endlessly innovative artist weaves traditional Irish songs and textural components into her compelling compositions.
Domino is thrilled to announce that they’ve welcomed RÓIS to its label and will be giving a global release to a remastered version of her critically acclaimed 2024 album, MO LÉAN, an affecting resuscitation of the ancestral rituals surrounding death in Ireland.
A vital and stirring musical exploration, MO LÉAN was awarded the Album of the Year title at the Northern Ireland Music Prize, and was shortlisted for Ireland’s Choice Music Prize. Praise for RÓIS’s idiosyncratic style continued throughout 2025 with “CAOINE” being named Best Original Folk Track at Ireland’s RTÉ Radio 1 Folk Awards, where she also took home the Best Emerging Artist award.
The remastered version of MO LÉAN will be released on November 20 and the digital format will feature a brand-new track “PORT NA H-EALA.” Today, RÓIS shares a visceral performance of “WHAT DO YOU SAY (LIVE FROM A WAKE),” which highlights her tremendous vocals and striking live show.
RÓIS aka Rose Connolly’s eclectic ear for melody developed at an early age; growing up in a family of traditional music players, RÓIS’s formative years were shaped not only by playing beloved Irish folk songs passed down through generations (for a period, she was even part of a wedding and funeral band with her sister) but also by an appreciation for more conventional song structures that came from listening to the likes of the Beatles, Nirvana, and Bowie. Her musical taste would expand to include techno and jazz, with a particular fondness for the work of Cory Henry and Robert Glasper. This varied foundation – both as a musician and a music fan – ultimately inspired RÓIS to study music composition in Dublin’s Royal Irish Academy of Music. The next pivotal turning point in Connolly’s education and artistry arrived while living in The Hague. There, she learnt how to speak Irish, which would inform the path her music would follow.
MO LÉAN – RÓIS’ second album – is a remarkable testament to Connolly’s affecting artistry. Anchoring the album is a desire to recontextualize the occasion and celebration of death. Drawing from elements synonymous with the country’s DNA – traditional sean-nós tunes, the Irish language and the omnipresent toll of the Angelus (the church bells that ring three times a day) – RÓIS carries them into the modern day with her unique approach to melody and production as well as her electrifying vocal performances. The album explores the Irish pagan tradition of caoineadh, or keening, which was an integral part of the mourning process, during which veiled women gathered around the body to sing and howl. Taking place over several days, these wakes became joyously unruly sessions during which music, dance and storytelling emboldened the essence of the deceased as they began a new chapter in their life cycle. These traditions were suppressed as the Catholic Church decreed a total termination of all public lamentation. Later, the impact of colonization sealed its fate through the decimation of the Irish language, and by wiping out rural communities that kept the tradition alive. Across MO LÉAN, RÓIS performs a resuscitation of the ardent rituals surrounding death and throws open the doors that tried to hide away such inherent and important ways of Irish life.
Conjuring the ghosts of old Ireland through the sean-nós style is amplified by RÓIS’s immersive live shows, where she performs dressed in black, her face covered by a veil, a symbol of anonymity, grief and a reminder of the keener’s role to mourn a body and guide their soul to their next stage. On the consideration poured into her live shows, RÓIS notes: “I wanted to do something more conceptual. I wanted to set the gig at a funeral. There were accounts that, in Pagan times, the Wake would have been a debaucherous affair. I wanted to bring that to my music and the show because I think we need to unsterilise how we see death and how you have to be mannered.”
RÓIS will make her US live debut later this year, playing Brooklyn’s Union Pool on December 3. Presale from tomorrow via RÓIS’s mailing list; general sale from Friday, October 2, at 10am local time.
Upcoming live dates:
November 17: ICA – London, UK
December 3: Union Pool – Brooklyn, NY
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