It’s no fluke that Flook is celebrating 30 years of making music in 2025. 'Sanju' – their fifth album is a majestic, energising, delight throughout.
Taking inspiration from their roots in the Irish and English traditions, Flook are known for their enviable trademark sound, ‘weaving and spinning traditionally rooted tunes over precise acoustic grooves, with a rare blend of fiery technical brilliance, delicate ensemble interaction and a bold, adventurous musical imagination.’
There is certainly no shortage of virtuosity amongst the members of Flook, but the unique impact of this band stems from the wholly intuitive, almost symbiotic, exchange between the various flutes, frets and skins.
Celebrating their 30th anniversary in 2025, Flook continue to inspire and enchant. Their new recording, ‘Sanju’, makes it clear that while Flook’s roots remain firmly anchored in tradition, they continue to uphold their reputation as major musical innovators.
Opening with the ‘Farther Shore’, the new instrumental album demonstrates Flook’s brilliance – it is as exhilarating an instrumental ride as can be imagined. ‘Sanju’ delights – it energises, it gallops, it’s hard to keep up with the brilliance of the musicianship.
With Brian Finnegan on whistles and flutes, Sarah Allen on flutes and accordion, Ed Boyd – guitar and John Joe Kelly on bodhran, there’s some supernatural alchemy at play as it glides through the tracks to ‘Winter Flower’, ‘Jig for Sham’, ‘The Dawn Wall’, ‘Johnny D’s’,‘ Timewaver’ and ‘Koady’ – each naturally flowing one to the other as if on fire.
There may be no words but it is poetry. ‘The Burning Lion’, ‘Tie the Knot in Georgia’, to ‘Faqqua’, ‘Where there is Light’ and ‘Ninety Years Young’, it’s a worthy sibling to Flook’s family of albums to date. Here’s to another 30 years!