Moving on – My Contemporary Music Centre highlights

It’s a little over two years since I started working for the Contemporary Music Centre. I arrived out of college and lucked my way into a really interesting job filming and editing videos and recordings of concerts and interviews of contemporary music: composers, performers and organisers. I’ve got to work with some great people during my time there and meet lots of interesting people as well. I was also privileged to work with a great group of people in my time at the Contemporary Music Centre, some of whom have move on and some who are still there. In no particular order thanks to Jonathan, Caitríona, Keith, Evonne, Eve, Sinéad, Karen, Emma, Ben and Sam. I’m now leaving to move to the Netherlands and start a Master in Composition and as I move on to pastures new I wanted to share some of the work which I’m proudest of from my time at the Contemporary Music Centre.

Culture Night

a dark horse

This week’s something for the weekend is the debut release of the Dublin based band a dark horse. They launched their EP a few months back and have been generating a lot of interest since. I know one of the guys, Hugh, so I came across it when he posted about the release and got really into it. It’s really nice blend of ambient folk music which kind of reminds me of The Shins or The Postal Service. The music is undoubtedly instrumental, as opposed to electronic, but there’s a great sense of space and ambience which creates an atmospheric, almost cinematic, vibe. Apart from the music I like that the guys have taken a DIY approach to releasing their music, writing, recording, mixing it all themselves as well as making some excellent videos and really nice artwork to go along with the EP. The reason I’m posting this a day earlier than usual is that they’re playing a gig in The Grand Social this evening as part of Hard Working Class Heros which would be well worth checking out.

Dublin Laptop Orchestra with This is how we fly

A video by Myles O’Reilly of last week’s Dublin Laptop Orchestra gig at Smock Alley with This is how we fly and Donal Dineen.

Floor It promo

Check out the promo for the Floor It show in the Dublin Fringe.

Floor It from Sean Byrne on Vimeo.

FLOOR IT: Sound is a physical thing and it touches you softly.

Tickets €14/12 from fringefest.com or 1850 374 643

Disclaimer: The show organisers can not guarantee the presence of any kites or people wearing t-shirts at any of the shows.

No kites were harmed in the making of this video.

Where we’re at :: a colaborative art project

Yesterday was the opening night of the “Where we’re at” at the Big Picture, Tallaght. It’s the culmination of 3 weeks of hard work as part of the Creative Campus project, a project that facilitated graduate artists to create site specific works for an underused space in Tallaght.

I got involved in the project at the start of the summer when the original call for artists went out. After a rocky start, with a second call being issued, we got properly underway at the beginning of the month. I got to work in a group with 3 fine art graduates and a graduate of the masters that I taking at the moment (Music and Media Technology). Our group was interested in interactivity and both of the pieces that we created were based on the idea of having the audience interact with the piece. Read more

Floor It :: Dublin Fringe Show

Great news the Dublin Fringe festival has been announced, ta da, and most importantly as part of the Dublin Fringe there is a quirky little event called Floor It. The whole show has been put together by a group of mavericks kept going with nothing more than spit and determination, with a budget that would even make Greece wince. For any of you too lazy to click on the link here’s the summary of what’s going down at the Floor It shows: Read more