„The Piper and the Púca“ is the follow up to „The Enchanted Lake“ which received the General Music Award in 2011. Allefour Fairy Tales on this CD are related to Music. They are read by Mick Fitzgerald, who grew up and still lives in Dublin. He was born into a highly musical family und is a man of many talents: once a journalist he now works mainly as an actor, author and musician. He was a member of bands like Tipsy Sailor and The Wild Geese. With The Wild Geese he toured the whole of Europe in the eighties, before devoting himself to acting as his main profession. In Dublin he was in stage plays by, among others, Oscar Wilde and Brendan Behan, and he appeared in a large number of films. In 2010 he published a collection of stories: “Session” (Songdog Verlag, Vienna) and a second collection will hopefully be published in 2014. In 2012 he issued his fourth solo-CD “Still live”. Mick Fitzgerald als sings two songs, the tradition Bonny Labouring Boy” ad the self penned “When Dublin is tired” Three songs come from The Ralf Weihrauch Trio. “Molly Bond” and “The Temptaion Song” are traditional. The Tune-Set “Elves of Tomnafurich/The Hun Killer/Loch 19” are Weihrauch`s original compositions. Ralf Weihrauch has been a welcome guest as a folk musician on the stages of many countries for years. He likes things to be unusual. Such as his trio, whose combination of fiddlle, accordeon and two voices is extremely rare in Germany. His choice of songs and tunes shows his great knowledge of Irish, English and Scottish musical traditions Jonas Liesenfeld studies violin in Arnhem in the Netherlands. His teachers are not amused by his preference of the Irish-Scottish folkstyle he got to know in his teens.  Beate Rupietta adds her beautiful voice to the trio’s music. She is a member of Cologne-based cabaret-choir Die Sirenen. The Trio released “Green Break” in 2012, and Ralf Weihrauch has released two Solo CDs “Hole in One “ (2008) and “Not the bleeding obvious” (2005). Translater Gabriele Haefs was born in Wachtendonk near the Dutch border and today lives in Hamburg. She studied Folklore, Celtic Languages and Scandinavian Languages, which shows her geographical preferences.She has researched and written about – among other things – myths and fairytales and also works as a translator; her best known translation is the German version of Jostein Gaarder’s philosophical novel “Sofie’s World”. For her work as a translator she has received numerous awards, most recently the Order of St. Olav, bestowed by the King of Norway. The fairytales on this CD are from Ireland and Scotland  - which may seem slightly surprising, but only at first sight. The cultural contacts between Ireland and Scotland were always – and still are – very close, and in fact the languages that are now Irish and Scottish Gaelic were one language throughout the Middle Ages. Most fairytales and legends known in Ireland can be found in Scottish versions, and vice versa. The story called “The Elves in Scotland” here is well-known from many countries: someone is enticed away from where he should be and returns after a few hours, so he thinks. But he has been in another world and in the world he knew a century or more has passed. T The story of Fair Diarmid (Diarmid Bawn, Irisch: bán) also has its cousins in many countries, and the transformation of a person into an animal (usually a horse or a wolf, but in Northern Europe often into a bear) has fascinated story-tellers of all times.  That Diarmid, in the form of a horse, has to travel through the air to Jamaica has been regarded as strange, but old Gaelic literature is full of exotic place-names. “The wonderful tune” also builds on motives loved by storytellers around the world – the city under the sea and the human being enticed by sweet music to settle below the waves with a merman or a mermaid is well-known. In this version we find the ancient symbol of the piece of burned wood which shows that the person is still alive. “The Piper and the Púca”, from Douglas Hyde’s collection Leabhar Sgeulaigheachta (“The Book of Stories”) is a very Irish story, without known international parallels. Hyde, ever the diligent scholar, translated it himself and added comments about how and why he translated the way he did, which makes it extremely interesting reading.