Author: Breffni Banks

Fractal on Tour with Philip Lawson

The Linenhall Arts Centre, Castlebar

January 16th, 8.30pm

Fractal bring programme of new Irish guitar music to Mayo

Fractal – the initiative of guitarist Philip Lawson and composer Anna Murray – continue their crowd-funded national tour of new music for guitar and electronics. The programme was written by selected composers especially for the tour, including Garrett Sholdice, Sebastian Adams, Conal Ryan, Francis Heery and Anna Murray, as well as two works by Fergal Dowling and Benjamin Dwyer.

The concert will present contemporary Irish music in a new light: with each piece given its own visual interpretation by a different artist, the programme makes an immersive audiovisual experience from the meeting of art and music. Featuring art by Maura McDonnell, Jane Cassidy and Andy Smith among others, the concert runs the gamut of the energetic, the contemplative and the experimental.

Programme (remaining visual artists TBA):

Garrett Sholdice 3 Interludes  

Conal Ryan (music) + Maura McDonnell (visuals) Catalogue

Francis Heery Reflected Shadow Reversed   

Sebastian Adams  Tweet Piece (#2)   

Anna Murray (music) + Andy Smith (visuals) Mutter

also

Benjamin Dwyer Étude No. 1 

Fergal Dowling (music) + Fractal (visuals) Stops

Phil Lawson is an Irish classical guitarist with a strong interest in contemporary music. He graduated with a MMus in Performance from the University of Ulster, where he focused on 21st century Irish Music. He has studied with Brian Farrell and Matthew McAllister and has played in masterclass with David Russell, Ana Vidovic and Xuefei Yang among others. Recent concerts include a sell-out concert in the National Concert Hall, which focused on the music of Dave Flynn and J.S. Bach. He is a dedicated educator, and has recently completed a series of very successful musicianship workshops with St. Ciaran’s National School Hartstown. He also works frequently with the Booterstown Guitar Circle as a mentor and teacher. As a performer he has premiered works by Anna Murray, Bill McGrath, Dylan Rynhart and has recently performed music by Frank Lyons, Richard Gill and Dave Flynn.

Anna Murray is a composer, musician and writer from Castlebar and based in Dublin. She holds a MPhil in Music and Media Technologies from Trinity College, where she specialised in Mixed Media Composition and studied with Donnacha Dennehy and Linda Buckley. She has had works performed by the Crash Ensemble, Philip Lawson, The Rhombus Ensemble among others, and has had works featured at the Hilltown New Music Festival. She is a member of the Irish Composers’ Collective and her work is represented by The Contemporary Music Centre. As a pianist, Anna has trained with Adrian Vernon Fish and Leonora Carney, and her performances include works by contemporary composers such as John Adams, and a number of student composition premieres. She also plays piano, bass and synth in the band The Manhattan Syndrome. Anna is a freelance journalist and Editor for The Journal Of Music. She undertakes a number of freelance arts management and marketing roles, including work for Ergodos, The Irish Composers’ Collective and Lundstrom Arts Management.

Fractal Tour dates:

The Linenhall, Castlebar, Jan 16th, 2013

The Cork Film Centre, Ballincollig, Cork, Mar 8th, 2013

Frances Black will be releasing her new album in January 2013 after taking 10 year break from recording. The highly anticipated album will be released on Dara Records in Ireland and a best of Frances Black album will be released on Compass Records in America. To celebrate the release, Frances has announced a performance in Vicar Street on Friday 15^th March with national tour dates to be announced soon.

Speaking of the release, Frances said: “I feel stronger and more passionate than ever about my music. This album is something I have wanted to do for a long time but it has taken me 10 years to get here. It is an album of all my favourite songs that I have sung through the years, I have loved and lived these songs, they all tell stories of my life”

The first single ‘LOVE SONG’ was written by Leslie Duncan who sadly passed away in 2010.

“I first heard this song on Elton John’s album ‘Tumbleweed Connection” when I was a kid and fell in love with it.  I recorded it with the great Declan Sinnot many years ago and I am glad to say that Leslie Duncan heard my version and contacted me to say how much she loved it, I was absolutely thrilled”

Frances’ first solo album, Talk to Me, was the number 1 best-selling album in Ireland for 10 weeks when it was released in 1994. She had a massive hit single with “All the Lies That You Told Me”, written by the late Christie Hennessy, and went on to release six more best-selling solo albums, The Sky Road, The Smile On Your Face, Don’t Get Me Wrong, How High the Moon, The Best Of Frances Black, and This Love Will Carry.

The future is looking bright for Frances with a wonderful new album, an ever-increasing international fan-base and a scheduled release in America on her new label Compass Records.

“I’ve come on in leaps and bounds in my confidence compared to what I was. I’m starting to believe in myself now for the first time in my life” she asserts.

With an inner strength that has helped her to overcome the odds to become the success story she is today, there is no doubt that Frances Black is at last beginning to claim the spotlight that she so richly deserves.

www.frances-black.net

Frances Black at Vicar Street | Friday 15^th March 2013

Tickets €25 (inc. booking fee) available through www.ticketmaster.ie and outlets nationwide.

Fionn Regan will be playing a very special seasonal show in the magnificent surroundings of the Unitarian Church on St Stephens Green on Tuesday 18th December. This stunning and intimate setting is the perfect place to experience songs from his new Album Bunkhouse Vol 1: Anchor Black Tattoo.

Included in the ticket price is admission to the Official After Party at Whelans Parlour Bar with mince pies, mulled wine and a DJ set from Fionn.

Tickets €15 from WaV Box Office 1890 200 078, www.wavtickets.ie, or in person at Camden Row.

The Bunkhouse Vol 1: Anchor Black Tattoo is due to be released in the UK on 28th January 2013.

‘High Hope’ is the latest single to be released off Glen Hansard’s debut solo album ‘Rhythm And Repose’.

The video was shot in Glen’s hometown of Ballymun and a percentage of iTune sales are being donated to the Susan G. Komen Foundation for breast cancer.

Glen plays the Ulster Hall on Sunday December 16 and then Vicar Street on December on 17^th & 18^th

www.glenhansardmusic.com

In 2011 the students of Beneavin De La Salle College, Finglas participated in an arts project funded by Creative Engagement. The students wrote and recorded an original piece of music.

They filmed the entire process, its conception, the recording and the making of the music video which they complied onto a 28 minute DVD.

All work has been done by the students and the official album launch is on Friday 7^th of December.

The song “Where Do We Go” by the band Fine Line is now available on iTunes.

https://itunes.apple.com/ie/album/where-do-we-go-single/id570692907

“This is the voice of Ireland’s youth, It’s about time Ireland started listening”

He produced Declan O’Rourke’s first demo, he gave Wallis Bird her first ever studio experience on his 2003 record “What You Feel, Not What You Drive”, and he also wrote the first version of “Angels” with Robbie Williams, so this shouldn’t be the first time you’ve heard of Ray Heffernan.

Often the catalyst for other artist’s success and for a long time the “Songwriter’s Songwriter”, he’s back with a new record; a strong, well-defined and immaculately produced document of an Irish writer on an International stage.

“New Dress Woven”, a title inspired by the last two lines of Patrick Kavanagh’s “Canal Bank Walk”, is a collection of 11 new songs by the Dublin songwriter, now based on the shores of Lake Orta in Northern Italy. From there, he flies the flag of Irish songcraft high in his new role as the singer, writer and front man of The Grand Canal Band. The 7-strong band itself is composed of some of the finest and best- known musicians in Italy and the album represents the union of their, and of Heffernan’s, wealth of talent and experience. The open-air launch of the album on the night of the summer solstice was attended by a crowd of 1500, and recorded for TV by an independent production company.

Like so many expatriate Irish writers before him, Heffernan’s melodies and lyrics are coloured by his love for his homeland. From “Stardust”, which concerns itself with a love story in the context of the 1981 disaster, to “Gravediggers”, a heart-breakingly beautiful song about the historic Glasnevin pub, and “Amy’s Answer”, a new take on Irish balladry and of story-telling within the song.

The new video for this last song, a modern day re-telling of “Oisin in Tir na nOg”, was directed and produced by Emilio Uberti, who has worked with such Italian legends as Fabrizio di Andrè and Franco Battiato and even previously ventured into imagery for Irish songwriting with the late, and in his own right legendary, Mic Christopher.

The album can be listened to in it’s entirety, downloaded or the special edition, Kilt-covered CD can be purchased from http://www.rayheffernan.net . Though he lives and dedicates himself to a life as a modern bard in a foreign land, Ray Heffernan brings the Grand Canal Band to Ireland in the new year to showcase these new songs to his own tribe.