There’s no direct English translation for the Irish word Rún. It hovers somewhere between “secret” “mystery” and “love” but never quite settles on any of them. That ambiguity becomes a compass for the Irish trio who’ve adopted the name: a project rooted in improvisation, ritual, and something just beyond the veil.

Comprised of Tara Baoth Mooney (a visual artist and former collaborator with the Jim Henson Company), Diarmuid MacDiarmada (of Nurse With Wound and brother of Lankum’s Cormac), and Rian Trench (Solar Bears co-conspirator and owner of The Meadow studio on Ireland’s east coast), Rún emerged less as a band and more as a shared psychospiritual experiment. Their debut self-titled album, out 22nd August via Rocket Recordings, is a document of trance states, open-ended sessions, and deep mutual trust.

The trio describe the project as having been “inspired by dreams, synchronicities, and other uncanny influences found in everyday life.” But that undersells the weight of the work. These recordings feel elemental—etched with texture, steeped in breath, and alive with the frictions of the known and unknowable. Created through what the band call a “collective creative headspace,” Rún was born from sessions fuelled as much by shared meals and laughter as by hours of free improvisation and deep listening.

“When we get together to work, we often engineer particular atmospheres in order to bring ourselves to what we call the ‘deep’ place,” they explain. “This is the ‘finding’ phase, where ideas come together with whatever stuff is in the ether.”

In this deep place, the trio channel forces that feel at once ancient and oddly domestic, like spirits drawn out of cracked walls and tidal flows. Their music doesn’t resemble folk in any conventional sense, but it bears a folkloric weight—something lived-in, ritualistic, and hovering at the edge of language.

Rún will bring their debut to the stage at the 2025 edition of Birmingham’s Supersonic festival, taking place 29th–31st August.