Smacht
Interview with The Contemporary Music Centre
Here’s an interview I did with the Contemporary Music Centre about my recent album! Check out more from the album on Ergodos‘ site.
Micro review from No More Workhorse
No More Workhorse
published a brief review of Smacht calling it “a delicately layered affair.” Check out the full review on their website or listen to the album teaser below.
Smacht trailers
Check out the trailers for the Smacht film from director Bob Gallagher
Aristos Quartet performing Smacht
A video from the Aristos Quartet performance of Smacht at the St. Patrick’s Amsterdam festival.
Recording Smacht at Beechpark Studios
I had the pleasure of recording Smacht at Beechpark Studios with Daire Winston in May 2014. The piece was was performed by Kate Ellis, Robin Panter, Cora Venus Lunny and Adrian Hart and came together on tape over the course of a few hours. Benedict Schlepper Connolly, from Ergodos, was on hand to offer his creative and technical assistance and Daire Winston made sure everything ran smoothly and the recording session came together really nicely.
They were all a joy to work with. I’m very proud to have Kate, Robin, Cora and Adrian performing this piece on the record and am delighted that they agreed to be involved. It was a really confidence boost for me as a composer that musicians of their calibre had faith enough in the music to commit it to a recording. What was probably not a big deal to them, felt like a tremendous vote of confidence to me and I’m eternally grateful.
Photos from the session courtesy of Orla Mc Nelis.
Genesis of the Smacht string quartet
Ergodos are shortly releasing a piece I wrote called Smacht. The piece is a 23 minute string quartet, but it didn’t start out that way. I want to take you back and show you how it began.
It was Autumn 2011 and I was up to my eyes in the final year of my masters. I was at one of those points in my life where there’s a constant feeling that the world is falling in. And was suffering from the the ever-present pangs of self doubt: Had I made the right decision in pursuing music? Was it all just a pipe dream? Was the light at the end of the tunnel a train?
As well as trying to fulfil all my college commitments I was involved in the Dublin Laptop Orchestra – which had kicked off in ernest that summer. We had our first major gig happening in November with This is how we fly. I was in the throes of writing something for it… and was struggling.
Much to my shame I hadn’t actually known who This is how we fly were prior to that. And as I’d ultimately be writing something for them I was having a wee look on YouTube to see who they were. I came across videos of Caoimhín Ó Raghallaigh performing his solo material with a loop pedal and was enraptured. I really liked the droney, hypnotic feel to his music. Read more
Announcing my debut album!! Smacht!
I am delighted to announce that I’m releasing my debut album!
Smacht is the fruit of two years of work and the culmination of lots of hard work and many serendipitous opportunities working with lots of wonderful, talented and generous people. The release is the result of lots of tinkering and experimenting and thinking. Of throwing different ideas at what I think a release could and should be. And figuring out what it was that I loved about the music I’ve bought. The music was recorded by Kate Ellis, Robin Panter, Adrian Hart, Cora Lunny and Mobius Percussion along with a remix by producer Sean Byrne. It will be out on the 2 April with Ergodos and there are launch events in Amsterdam, Dublin and New York.
2013 – a look back on the year that was
The year of Our Lord 2013 is almost over and at least 2013 things have happened to me this year, but rather than list them all here is an abridged summary. Lots of travelling, meeting new people and hearing interesting things in interesting places with interesting people.
Learning
This year was a pretty hectic in terms of education. I’m out of my masters a little over 18 months and I’ve been trying to continue to learn as much I can. I’ve been luck enough to get the opportunity to study on a number of courses, both in Ireland and internationally. The first was the Young Composers’ Meeting in Apeldoorn. This was a pretty terrifying experience as I got to write for a 16 piece ensemble with voice. Most of the instruments were ones which I had never written for before, and I wrote the piece as we drift softly (into the fog) for the course. Read more