“Caoine” by RÓIS 

Once a deeply emotive and integral part of Irish and Scottish wakes, keening, the complex and soulful art of women’s vocal lamentation was all but eradicated through the efforts of the church and British colonization. We don’t know exactly what it originally sounded like, as it was largely wiped out before the advent of recorded sound. But RÓIS, a composer, vocalist, multi-instrumentalist and electronic artist  from Fermanagh, Ireland,  certainly seems to be channeling the ancient bean chaointe, or “keening woman,” in her song “Caoine” (the Irish word for keen). 

Most of us will not be able to understand the lyrics: they are in Irish and only a small (yet growing) number of people outside of Ireland speak it. But we don’t need to. This isn’t a song that needs to be comprehended mentally, but rather a sonic experience to be understood emotionally, spiritually, and humanistically. Uplifting and dark, sensual and mournful, this is a standout track from the groundbreaking album, MO LÉAN (Irish for my loss or my sorrow), released in September 2024. 

Credit: Screenshot from the video of Caoine by RÓIS

Beginning with an archival recording of a keening woman from the 1950s, the song emerges from behind the withered vocal track with a crackling electronic drum beat, and then RÓIS picks up the tune. Her voice is clear and haunting, at once defiant and nurturing, powerful and deep. The song builds and recedes, oceanic and dark as though invoking at once the unknowable depths of the sea and the moonlight that shines upon its vast choppy rhythm. As though to say that all of this is death, all of it. 

This is metaphysically imbued music, both ancient and electronically inventive, and so intensely personal it pierces the boundaries between individuality and interconnectedness. Theatrical without becoming artificially performative, RÓIS conjures the magic of death and reveals it to be life itself. The result is utterly unapologetic.

Play it on your way to a funeral or in the deep hours of the night following the service. Or, if you’re keen to revitalize the traditional Gaelic wake, let it sing you through your grief when the conversation lulls and hopelessness starts to creep its way in. This is one for the times that tears must fall.