One of the charms of the hit Irish movie ONCE was the way it, without fuss, put the songs on centre-stage, allowing them to breathe and fill the space in front of the camera lens. The film is very much about the role music plays in peoples' lives; how it inhabits the space in and around different people, pushing and pulling them into contact - bridging the gap.
Amidst the brilliant performances by the main characters, played by the Swell Season duo of Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova, there's a spine-tingling moment, set at a low-key party, when a group of musicians centred around an unassuming man with an extra-ordinary voice play a song called Gold. The song swoops and sways, its poetry merging effortlessly with the sound, creating a glittering, warm gift. It's a moment when the musicians merge into the music; to paraphrase Yeats, 'how can we know the dancer from the dance