RÓIS | Caoine
Fermanagh artist resurrects Irish keening tradition with sean-nós vocals, John "Spud" Murphy production, and 1955 archival samples in 2024.
Story Behind “CAOINE”
Resurrecting the Bean Caointe: Ireland’s Lost Mourning Ritual
“CAOINE” (pronounced KWEE-nyuh, Irish for “keening” or “lament”) emerged from RÓIS’ discovery of the final surviving recordings of caoineadh—Ireland’s ancient vocal lament tradition that ceased as a living practice around 1900. The Fermanagh artist, born Rose Connolly, found only two or three lasting recordings of actual keening songs: one from an unknown singer on the Aran Islands in 1955, another by Kitty Gallagher recorded by folklorist Alan Lomax at the Central Hotel in Letterkenny. These ethereal, wailing melodies—sung by women called bean caointe (keening women) at wakes beside coffins—became the foundation for RÓIS’ modern reworking.
The tradition itself dates to pre-Christian times in Gaelic society. Women would keen a lamenting wail at the graveside or during wakes, their voices conveying communal grief while helping the living release sorrow. As RÓIS explained, “Keeners through their voices, movements and laments, conveyed the communal expression of grief and allowed those suffering a way to release their sorrow and loss.” The practice merged genuine and performed grief into something transcendent—a form of communal care that made death’s passage “momentous and consoling for everyone affected, the dead and the living.”
The Irish Wake Tour and Contemporary Resurrection
“CAOINE” served as the first single from RÓIS’ October 2024 EP Mo Léan (Irish for “my grief” or “alas”), released alongside The Irish Wake Tour—a theatrical performance reimagining wake traditions for contemporary audiences. RÓIS saw the declining Irish wake customs as fertile ground for artistic resurrection: “I am beyond thrilled to soon release this concept EP and embark on a tour to perform it live. This tour performance has evolved into quite a theatrical piece, one that takes you on a cathartic journey while exploring these rich, and sometimes unsettling, traditions.”
The single announcement in September 2024 positioned “CAOINE” as both artistic statement and cultural intervention. At a time when Irish wake traditions—the period between death and burial that brings communities together in grief—were fading from practice, RÓIS aspired to “express the power of the voice to transcend death and help us relinquish our fear of it.” Critics immediately recognized the ambition: Nialler9 described the track as “darkly stunning,” while Dig With It called it “astonishing” and “a portal to the other.”
“CAOINE” Recording and Production Details
John “Spud” Murphy and the Sean-Nós Electronics Fusion
“CAOINE” was written and produced by RÓIS with additional production from John “Spud” Murphy, the acclaimed Irish producer known for his work with Lankum and OXN. Murphy’s production approach—maintaining traditional Irish music’s essence while incorporating modern electronic textures—proved ideal for RÓIS’ vision of keening reimagined. All tracks on Mo Léan were mixed by Darragh Mac Dónaill and Tailtiu, with Tailtiu providing additional production on the EP’s closing track “Feel Love.”
RÓIS’ vocal approach on “CAOINE” roots itself in sean-nós singing—the highly ornamented, unaccompanied traditional Irish vocal style characterized by long melodic phrases and melismatic lines. Her voice, compared by critics to Björk, Meredith Monk, and Hatis Noit, employs sean-nós techniques while pushing into experimental territory. The production layers her vocals with electronic soundscapes that evoke both ancient ritual and contemporary introspection, creating what The Thin Air described as music where “death is not death, truly, but life taking on a new shape.”
Sampling the Last Keeners and Honoring the Dead
Crucially, “CAOINE” incorporates samples from those rare historical keening recordings—RÓIS’ method of “honouring the original women by sampling them in her adaption.” This approach treats the archival recordings not as museum pieces but as living voices that can speak across a century. By weaving these fragments of 1950s keening into her 2024 production, RÓIS creates a sonic dialogue between bean caointe of different eras, suggesting that mourning’s essential function remains constant even as its forms evolve.
The production emphasizes dynamics and sonic space—elements essential to sean-nós performance where ornamentation and note-shaping (the “caoine” or “cry” in traditional Irish music) carry emotional weight. RÓIS explained her compositional philosophy: “As a composer, I always gravitate to inventing new sounds. No matter if it’s folk-based or not—innovation is most imperative for me, and is what I look out for frequently when listening to music. The folk-based approach is due to a love for those melodies, and being the predominant genre of my musical upbringing, it’s an easy springboard to bounce ideas off.”
Notes About “CAOINE” by RÓIS
Release Date: September 2024 (single), October 4, 2024 (EP release)
Duration: Varies by platform
Genre: Experimental Folk / Sean-Nós / Electronic / Avant-Garde
Album: Mo Léan (EP, track 5 of 9)
Language: Irish (Gaeilge) and vocalizations
Producer: RÓIS, John “Spud” Murphy (additional production)
Mixing: Darragh Mac Dónaill and Tailtiu
Label: Self-released
Format: Digital (Bandcamp, Spotify), vinyl (2nd pressing pre-order)
Inspiration: Historical keening recordings from 1955 (Aran Islands, Letterkenny)
Tour: The Irish Wake Tour (October-November 2024)
RÓIS “CAOINE” Era Artist Details
Artist Background
Stage Name: RÓIS (Irish for “Rose,” pronounced RAW-sh)
Real Name: Rose Connolly
Origin: Newtownbutler, Fermanagh, Northern Ireland
Musical Upbringing: Traditional Irish music family; played whistle, fiddle, banjo, piano, flute, mandolin
Education: Royal Irish Academy of Music (2018), Erasmus at Royal Conservatoire of The Hague
Vocal Style: Sean-nós singing with experimental/avant-garde influences
Vocal Comparisons: Björk, Meredith Monk, Hatis Noit
Performance Element: Wears black veil during performances (inspired by Daft Punk’s anonymity)
Irish Language: Self-taught via Duolingo and lessons from friend Rísteard; studied intensively after returning to Ireland post-COVID
Teenage Influences: Nirvana, Kurt Cobain (”obsessed,” played “Stay Away” constantly)
Listening Influences: Meredith Monk, Hatis Noit, Alice Coltrane, Daft Punk, Jon Hassell
Personnel on “CAOINE”
RÓIS (Rose Connolly): Vocals, composition, production, multi-instruments
John “Spud” Murphy: Additional production
Known for work with Lankum, OXN
Irish producer, mix and record engineer
Darragh Mac Dónaill: Mixing
Tailtiu: Mixing
Additional on Mo Léan EP: Jamie Bishop (Muckno) - bass guitar on “What Do You Say”
EP Context (Mo Léan)
Release Date: October 4, 2024
Meaning: “Mo Léan” = “My grief” or “Alas” in Irish
Concept: Death, life, mourning, catharsis journey from chaos of loss to cathartic release
Track Listing: 9 tracks
What Do You Say
Angelus 1
Cití (features keening sample from Kitty Gallagher/Alan Lomax recording)
Angelus 2
CAOINE
Angelus 3
Oh Lovely Appearance of Death (Charles Wesley hymnal rework)
The Death Notices
Feel Love (additional production by Tailtiu)
Keening Tradition: Pre-Christian Irish practice where women wailed laments at wakes/gravesides
Historical Recordings: Only 2-3 surviving recordings of actual keening (1955 Aran Islands, Kitty Gallagher)
Sampling Approach: RÓIS samples these archival recordings to honor original keeners
Tour Concept: The Irish Wake Tour - theatrical reimagining of wake customs
RÓIS Discography & Career Highlights
Uisce Agus Bean (2023) - Debut EP combining avant-garde with Irish trad and mythical themes
Mo Léan (October 4, 2024) - Keening concept EP
RTÉ Radio 1 Folk Awards: Two awards (including one received from Mary Chapin Carpenter)
Tommy Tiernan Show performance (October 2024, same night as Folk Awards)
Festival appearances: Bold Frontiers (Dundalk)
Described as “bringing back keening—and as a woman as well”
Upcoming projects: Possible collaboration with David Holmes, second keening album with The Crash Ensemble (elegy for rural Ireland inspired by John Healy’s The Death of an Irish Town)
Interesting Facts About “CAOINE”
The Black Veil and Anonymous Expression
RÓIS performs “CAOINE” and all her live shows wearing a black veil over her head—a practice inspired by Daft Punk’s masked anonymity but carrying deeper resonance for keening performances. “My first love for music was Daft Punk,” she explained to Dig With It. “I remember my brothers were very influenced by that, and how mysterious that was. For me, it’s that anonymity... You can really let go. You can express yourself more freely with the mask on.”
This visual element connects to the theatrical nature of traditional keening, where the bean caointe assumed a ritualized role that blended personal grief with performative expression. The veil also evokes mourning traditions across cultures while providing RÓIS the freedom to embody grief without the constraints of being watched as herself. When she performed on the Tommy Tiernan Show in October 2024, then appeared minutes later on the Folk Awards broadcast, viewers saw “an artist wailing out of the darkness with a black veil on her head”—an image that made keening feel both ancient and urgently contemporary.
From Kurt Cobain to Caoineadh: The Thread of Raw Expression
The path from RÓIS’ teenage Nirvana obsession to traditional Irish keening might seem unlikely, but both share a commitment to raw, unfiltered emotional expression. As an “angsty teenager” in Fermanagh, she played Nirvana’s “Stay Away” constantly in her bedroom, drawn to “that expressive Nirvana feeling.” This influence manifested in her December performance at the Black Box, where she delivered a “magnificent version” of “Something in the Way” that demonstrated how grunge’s emotional directness could translate to traditional Irish contexts.
The connection runs deeper than aesthetic: both keening and Nirvana’s approach reject polished performance in favor of visceral communication. Keening women didn’t perform grief—they channeled it, using their voices as vehicles for communal catharsis. Similarly, Cobain’s vocals on tracks like “Something in the Way” stripped away rock’s bravado to reveal vulnerability. RÓIS synthesizes these approaches on “CAOINE,” using sean-nós ornamentation not for technical display but as a method of accessing and transmitting emotion that words alone cannot carry.
This synthesis reflects RÓIS’ broader artistic philosophy. Raised in a traditional Irish music family in Fermanagh (she started classical and jazz around age seven but “it was always trad that was the main thing”), she remained connected to the land and musical heritage while absorbing everything from Alice Coltrane to Meredith Monk. “It’s really important to know where you came from,” she told Dig With It. “Folk and sean-nós speaks to me, because I’m very connected to the land in Fermanagh and my musical upbringing was all traditional music.” Yet she approaches that tradition as a “springboard to bounce ideas off,” not a constraint—creating innovative sounds rooted in ancient forms, much as keening itself was both ritualized and spontaneous, formal and wildly expressive.
Common Questions
Q: What does “CAOINE” mean? A: “CAOINE” (pronounced KWEE-nyuh) is the Irish word for “keening” or “lament”—referring to the ancient Gaelic tradition of vocal mourning. Keening (caoineadh) was practiced by women called bean caointe who wailed laments at wakes and gravesides, conveying communal grief through highly ornamented, melismatic vocalizations. The tradition dates to pre-Christian Ireland and ceased as a living practice around 1900.
Q: Who is RÓIS? A: RÓIS (pronounced RAW-sh, Irish for “Rose”) is the stage name of Rose Connolly, a composer, vocalist, multi-instrumentalist, and electronic artist from Newtownbutler, Fermanagh, Northern Ireland. She blends sean-nós (traditional Irish unaccompanied singing), folk, electronics, and jazz harmony. Her voice has been compared to Björk, Meredith Monk, and Hatis Noit. She performs wearing a black veil and has won two RTÉ Radio 1 Folk Awards.
Q: What is the EP Mo Léan about? A: Mo Léan (Irish for “my grief” or “alas”) is a concept EP about death, mourning, and catharsis, released October 4, 2024. RÓIS reimagines Ireland’s ancient keening tradition by sampling rare 1955 recordings of actual keening women and creating modern electronic-folk reworkings. The EP takes listeners through the grieving process from chaos to cathartic release, addressing Ireland’s declining wake customs and exploring death without fear.
Q: What is sean-nós singing? A: Sean-nós (Irish for “old style”) is traditional Irish unaccompanied vocal music characterized by highly ornamented, melismatic melodic lines and long phrases. It differs greatly from other folk singing traditions through its intensive use of ornamentation and note-shaping called “caoine” (the “cry”). RÓIS’ vocal style roots itself in sean-nós while incorporating experimental and avant-garde elements, creating a bridge between ancient and contemporary Irish music.
Q: Who produced “CAOINE”? A: “CAOINE” was written and produced by RÓIS with additional production by John “Spud” Murphy, an acclaimed Irish producer known for his work with Lankum and OXN. The track was mixed by Darragh Mac Dónaill and Tailtiu. Murphy’s approach to maintaining traditional Irish music essence while incorporating modern production proved ideal for RÓIS’ vision of resurrecting keening for contemporary audiences.