This week we were

Listening to:

James BlakeThe self-titled full-length debut from Blake is a majestic, peerless album of soulful electronica. We'll be hearing from him for many years to come.

Cyanide Sisters.

A free-to-download EP from New Jersey-based Com Truise, aks producer Seth Haley, whose ambient, 1980s-inspired sounds he describes as “mid-fi synth-wave, slower-motion funk”. Well said.

Playing

:

Little Big Planet 2

on PlayStation 3, a puzzle platform game centred around user-generated content that’s so immersive you’ll watch hours and days vanish before your eyes.

Reading

:

Paradoxical Undressing

Kristin Hersh’s funny, slick and emotional memoir, an account of one year in her life, when she was 19, in a band and got pregnant.

The Big Payback: The History of the Business of Hip-Hop

Dan Charnas’s fine account of how hip hop became a global empire.

Watching:

Bored to DeathA lovely TV series about a hipster detective in Brooklyn starring Jason Schwartzman, Zach Galifianakis and a surprisingly brilliant Ted Danson.

HereafterClint Eastwood's new film not only tackles the afterlife but also shoehorns in international tragedies – the 2004 tsunami, the 7/7 bombings – and partly resembles a Mike Leigh film.

Glad we went to

:

Clannad at Temple Bar TradFest The band’s much-anticipated reunion, at Christ Church in Dublin on Thursday, bore testament to their groundbreaking arrangements and magnificent harmonies. It was their first full concert performance, including Pól Brennan on keyboards, flute and guitar, in 20 years.

Their apprehension was tangible as Moya Brennan introduced the genteel Thíos Cois Na Trá Domh, with Ciarán Brennan's double bass anchoring its delicate rhythms. A seamless segue into dTigeas A Damhsagave the band an early chance to test their harmonies, and they emerged from it smiling, the vocals of Pól and Moya interweaving with the intimacy that only siblings can muster.

Clannad dug deep into their repertoire, with the dextrous Robbie Harris lending a percussive force and Éamonn de Barra guesting on keyboards and flute.

One of the few instrumentals of the night, a tentative reading of O'Carolan's Eleanor Plunkett, benefited from the gorgeous filigree patterns created by Moya's harp and Pól's flute, but Coinleach Ghlas An Fhomhair, while shimmering on the lightness of Moya's vocals, faltered somewhat amid Pól's choice of slightly dissonant guitar chords.

Ultimately it was a killer combination of simple traditional songs cut through with the charisma of Moya’s vocals and the sheer imagination of Clannad’s arrangements that made this night so special. At times the wash of synthesizers yanked the music back to the 1980s, a reminder of the camp overkill that was de rigueur three decades ago, but such infringements were fleeting.

The arrival of the choir Anúna up the aisle of this magnificent venue sealed the deal. Michael McGlynn’s choral arrangements were the perfect foil for Dúlamán and lent riches to In a Lifetime, a song stirringly renewed by the guest vocals of Brian Kennedy.

Minor trip-ups aside, Clannad’s reunion hints at a longevity that may well see them together again before too long.

Siobhán Long

Lunching over

:

Halloran's latestThe Mark O'Halloran double bill at Bewley's Cafe Theatre, in Dublin, introduces its second act on Monday as the wife of Red O'Brien, Mary Motorhead, tells her side of the story.

Intrigued by:

'As You Are Now So Once Were We', at the Peacock"The connection with James Joyce's 'Ulysses;, touted so heavily in the their publicity, may seem tenuous, but if it rests anywhere it is in the Company's experimentation with theatrical form." Sara Keatingin The Irish Timeson Friday

A little disappointed:

Joaquin Phoenix was snubbed for an Oscar nomination after his insanely convincing performance in the spoof documentary I'm Still Here