After years of musical collaboration, composer and pianist Antoni O’Breskey and his daughter, fiddle player and singer Consuelo Nerea Breschi, are releasing A Wild Inhabitation, a new album that brings Irish traditional music into conversation with minimalism, electronica and jazz. Released on 16 October, the record marks another chapter in the long running Nomadic Piano Project and features some of the most distinctive voices in Ireland’s contemporary traditional, folk and experimental music scenes.
The album grew from an intimate father and daughter collaboration into a wider musical project involving Ultan O’Brien of Slow Moving Clouds, Paahto Cummins of Paahto & The Bull, Ross Chaney of the John Francis Flynn Band, Kevin Murphy of Rattling Ark, Jack Duffy of Junior Brother Band, Barry Carroll, Brenda Castles and Italian cellist and producer Davide Viterbo of Distant City.
The recently released single Napoleon Crossing the Alps offers a glimpse of the album’s sound, combining expressive piano, hammer dulcimer, concertina and fiddle with cinematic synthesizers, cello, double bass and percussion. For Antoni, the piece developed from an old melody into a reflection on the tragedy of war and the human cost of political power. Its historical references resonate with the conflicts continuing around the world today.
Antoni O’Breskey is a composer, pianist and founder of the Nomadic Piano Project. With more than five decades in music and over 40 albums released, he has built an international reputation for crossing musical boundaries, bringing Irish tradition into dialogue with jazz, flamenco and other cultural influences. His 50 year career was celebrated in 2026 with a three volume retrospective album, a sold out concert at the National Concert Hall and The Piano Nomad, a short documentary directed by award winning filmmaker Luke McManus.
Consuelo Nerea Breschi began touring with her father and the Nomadic Piano Project at the age of sixteen. Since joining Ireland’s folk scene in 2014, she has become an established musician in her own right, co founding VARO and The Morning Tree and performing with Landless and Rattling Ark. She has also toured with Ye Vagabonds, building connections across Ireland’s contemporary folk community.
Consuelo says about Month of January: “I learned this song from my all-time favorite Irish traditional singer, Dolores Keane. It’s a song about loss and abandonment, and I find it extraordinarily powerful: in just four short verses, it delivers a tragic story while offering a stark warning to women to beware of false young men.
Across the world, there are countless heartbreaking stories of women abandoned while pregnant, left to face harsh destinies alone. In Ireland, under the heavy influence of the Church, this reality was particularly oppressive—until very recently, an unmarried woman could simply not envision a future as a single mother.
Many families carry the shadow of these stories. On my own, it echoes through the life of my great-grandmother: her father left for Argentina, to seek his fortune, leaving her pregnant mother with no choice but to give her up for adoption. My great-great-grandfather eventually chose to return seventeen years later to find the daughter he had never known and reunite the family, which turned into a happy ending story, but the echo of that story continued to resonate through generations to come.
I was just a child when I first heard Dolores Keane singing during her visit to my father’s house in Tuscany with John Faulkner. Her voice left an indelible mark on me—a deep instrument carrying raw grief, balanced with immense strength and dignity, the perfect vessel for this song.
With the passing of so many legendary Irish female singers recently, including Dolores, this song is our loving tribute to her timeless legacy.”
Following their sold out performance at the National Concert Hall in July, Antoni and Consuelo return to the venue on 22 October for a special album launch as part of the Metronome Festival. They will be joined by Kevin Murphy on cello and vocals, Paahto Cummins on banjo and mandolin, Tom Mulrooney on double bass, Barry Carroll on hammer dulcimer and Matthew Jacobson on drums. Californian multi instrumentalist Lizzi Murtough will perform as support. Tickets HERE
For Pinocchio Magazine, the release of A Wild Inhabitation is an opportunity to celebrate a collaboration that has developed over years, bringing together generations of musicians and different musical traditions. The success of the July concert at the National Concert Hall makes the return of Antoni and Consuelo an eagerly anticipated occasion, with the new album offering audiences another way to experience the evolving sound of the Nomadic Piano Project.
Read also: Antoni O’Breskey: 50 years of nomadic music
