Irish harpist and singer Áine Minogue celebrates the release of her new album, "Close Your Eyes, Love," with a concert and conversation at Robbins Library Community Room on Wednesday, Feb. 22, at 7 p.m.

Minogue’s latest release is a collection of mostly traditional lullabies from the Celtic lands. This collection marks Minogue’s completion of a music series celebrating the Celtic life cycle.

The album consists of five instrumentals and five vocal tracks, three of which are in English, one in Gaelic (Irish) and one in Welsh. Aine Minogue is accompanied by long time friends and co producer Scott Petito (bass, keyboards, guitar) and grammy award winning cellist Eugene Friesen, among others.

Minogue’s main instrument is the harp and in the ancient Irish harping tradition, it was understood that certain melodies could induce powerful states of sleep. These melodies were called ‘suantraí’ or songs of sleep and are among the loveliest in the tradition.

As well as being well versed in these sleep melodies or "suantraí," harpers were well versed in melodies of sorrow called "goltraí." Another important part of the harping repertoire was the "geantraí," or "songs of laughter," which created a sense of joy or merriment.

Says Minogue: "What’s fascinating to me is how people handled the issue of sleeplessness and what they put their faith in to cure it. For them, it was melody and musician. Faith systems are always fascinating. When you listen to some of these gorgeous old melodies, it’s easy to understand their faith in these otherworldly melodies full of beauty and longing. They truly are among my favorites."

The creator of 12 original Celtic music albums, many specializing in the Celtic life cycle, including Circle of the Sun, Between the Worlds, The
Twilight Realm and Celtic Lamentations, Áine Minogue "combines a hypnotic Celtic spirituality and contemporary sophistication in her playing and delicately lovely singing" (Boston Globe).

Numerous tracks of her music appear on compilations for such labels as BMG, Virgin, Rounder, and Putumayo in varying styles including Celtic, world, folk and new age. Her music has aired on all major and cable networks including CBS, ABC, NBC, Fox and MTV.