Author: Breffni Banks

Tuesday December 4th sees Rónán Ó Snodaigh perform his first solo album Tip Toe (2001) at Whelans in Dublin. This will be the last in a series of performances which have seen Rónán perform each of his five solo albums as originally recorded. Throughout the series, entitled A Perspective, Rónán has been joined on stage by musical genius’ such as Liam Ó Maonlai, Steve Cooney, Myles O Reilly, Clare Bonass, Ritchie Buckley amongst others. The series takes place with support from a successful crowd-funding campaign with FundIt and each performance is being filmed by Donal Scannall.

A really beautiful collection of songs in English to a resplendent musical backdrop, Tip Toe has been likened to The Penguin Café orchestra.  Bringing cello, violin, and the brilliant guitar plucking of Simon O Reilly and Simon Taylor together, this album was a surprising first solo album (in its difference from the music of Kíla) from Rónán and was widely acclaimed by both Kíla fans and the newly initiated.

A founding member of Ireland’s most celebrated World Music band Kíla, Rónán Ó Snodaigh is recognised as one of Ireland’s best and most innovative bodhrán players and a highly original singer songwriter. Rónán mixes the Irish Language, which is his first language of songwriting, bluesy grooves with wild percussion to create his unique organic sound.

Rónán is looking forward to revisiting Tip Toe and the opportunity to bring together so many talented musicians for this special one off concert.  

http://www.aperspective.ie/

http://www.facebook.com/RonanOSnodaigh

https://www.youtube.com/scanarama

https://twitter.com/#!/aperspectiv

http://soundcloud.com/aperspective

As well as reaching Number 1 in the Irish Album Charts this year, Dublin band Aslan also celebrated thirty years together in 2012 and to mark the occasion the lads joined us at IMRO last night for a public interview and intimate live performance.

After an entertaining and inspiring chat with RTÉ 2FM presenter, Paddy McKenna, Aslan were presented with an IMRO Number 1 Award by IMRO CEO Victor Finn, in recognition of their latest album, “Nudie Books and Frenchies”, reaching the top spot in the Irish album charts earlier this year. Thirty years is a huge milestone for a band to reach and in recognition of this, IMRO Chairman, Keith Donald, presented Aslan with a plaque featuring iconic images of the band down through the years. The audience of fans and songwriters were then treated to a live performance of some of Aslan’s greatest hits.

Aslan emerged from the working class areas of Finglas and Ballymun in Dublin’s Northside, in the 1980s. They released a demo single, ‘This Is’, in the Spring of 1986, which was a huge hit and became the longest ever play-listed single on Ireland’s pop radio station, RTÉ 2fm. After a rapid rise to fame, they infamously imploded in the late 1980’s but received a second bite of the cherry just a few years later.

What was supposed to be a one-off charity gig in July 1993 in Finglas reignited the spark and Aslan landed a new record deal with BMG. Their single, “Crazy World”, entered the charts at Number 4 and became one of the most played songs on Irish radio that year. Its release was followed by their Gold-selling album, ‘Goodbye Charlie Moonhead’. Since then Aslan have gone from strength to strength, releasing a series of gold and platinum selling albums and continuing to perform to their armies of loyal fans.

www.aslan.ie

Belfast-born uilleann piper John McSherry and Detroit natives Tyler Duncan (uilleann pipes, whistles, guitar, Rhodes) and Michael Shimmin (drums and percussion) have been dreaming of “.the olllam.” for the last decade. With a name inspired by the king’s own ollam bards of Irish lore, the trio wanted an ensemble that naturally represented their combined experiences in a multiplicity of styles. McSherry, one of the best uilleann pipers in the world and a founding member of legendary Irish group Lúnasa, has been dubbed “a true master” by Irish Music Magazine and has performed and written with a wide variety of artists, from Ornette Coleman to Nanci Griffith. Duncan and Shimmin, both holding degrees in jazz performance, have also been busy with their award-winning Irish-jazz crossover group Millish, Duncan doing double-duty in the dance-rock group My Dear Disco/Ella Riot.

In February 2012 the trio finally wrote and recorded an original album together, overcoming the Atlantic divide by means of the internet. The result, their eponymous debut .the olllam., released Sept. 25 on Compass Records, is lush with trance-like melodies, stunning instrumental virtuosity and a magical marriage of tradition and technology, finding the listener somewhere between Radiohead and Planxty with the ambient emotionalism of Nick Drake or Explosions in the Sky. McSherry, Duncan and Shimmin have discovered a synergy within their diverse musical backgrounds – introducing a new Irish crossover group rife with creative brilliance and progressive appeal.

Visit www.theolllam.com for more info news, music, videos, and the touring schedule!

Composer, Ciarán Farrell, and guitar virtuoso, Damien Kelly, will launch their new album, “New Frontiers” on Friday 7^th December at 7:30pm in the Royal Irish Academy of Music. It follows their EP “Jolt” which reached No.1 in the Irish classical iTunes charts when it was released.

Ciarán Farrell hails from Dublin and graduated from Trinity College Dublin in 1997 with an honours degree in music. He has received commissions from the BBC, RTÉ lyric fm, RTÉ Performing Groups, Craig Ogden, The Smith Quartet, Gerard McChrystal, John Feeley, Feeley/Dowdall duo, Katie McMahon, Concorde, Cois Ceim, Irish Modern Dance Theatre and Codetta amongst others. Ciarán has also worked on numerous TV/Film productions including the internationally broadcast series Divine Magic and Eyes on the World.

Damien Kelly is one of Irelands foremost guitarists and has been playing guitar since the age of eleven. In 2009 he completed a MMus in performance at the DIT Conservatory of Music in Dublin and he also spent 12 years studying guitar with Marion Hyland at the Royal Irish Academy of Music. He has won all the major competitions in Ireland for classical guitar including the contemporary music cup and the senior guitar competiton. He has also won numerous awards and scholarships from the Royal Irish Academy of Music in both guitar and piano.

http://www.facebook.com/farrellkellyguitar

IMRO member, Brent Parker, has recently completed a specially commissioned piece of music for strings and flute celebrating global trade between China, India and Europe.

The Four Corners Quartet was recorded in a day-long session at the Pro-Soul Studios in Beijing by the Phoenix Quartet, and premiered at Dezan Shira & Associates’ 20^th Anniversary Celebrations in Beijing and Shanghai earlier this month.

Speaking of the piece, Brent says:

“Four Corners combines themes derived from the musical heritages of China, India, Italy and the UK. The piece opens with a reference to the legendary founder of music in China, Ling Lun, who according to Chinese mythology made bamboo pipes tuned to the sounds of birds. This portion of the piece adheres to the pentatonic scale so common in Chinese music. The Shrutis and mircotonic intervals introduce the Indian influence of the piece which includes a reference to Ravi Shankar. A canzonetta-style section with hints of mandolin demonstrates the Italian theme. Lastly, a variation on the folksong Scarborough Fair represents the British influence.”

Brent was born in New Zealand in 1933, and lived in Ireland for over forty years. He taught at the DIT Conservatory of Music and Drama in Dublin from 1974 until his retirement to Achill Island in 1998 and is now based in Beijing.

A great variety of artists have performed Brent’s music, including John Feeley (guitar), the RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra, the RTÉ Concert Orchestra, Thomas Martin (double bass), Aisling Drury-Byrne (cello), William Dowdall (flute), Andreja Malir (harp), Ethna Tinney (piano), Nicola Sharkey (soprano) and Angela Feeney (soprano). In 1996, his first piano concerto was premiered by Finghin Collins with the Savaria Symphony Orchestra conducted by Robert Houlihan in a concert at the National Concert Hall, Dublin, to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the Hungarian Revolution. In the 1970s, his second piano concerto was performed by the RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Colman Pearce with the composer as soloist, and broadcast on RTÉ Radio. In 2006, his choral work Credo was performed by the senior and children’s choirs of St Patrick’s Cathedral, Dublin, joined by Resurgam Chamber Choir, conducted by Peter Barley. His work Exiles was premiered in Ireland in 2012 by guitarist John Feeley and Con Tempo quartet.

Alternative post punk rock band Movment release new album ‘Broken Down’.

Raw, intense, engaging, and real, Movment’s alternative rock influenced sound is created with guitars, electronics, hard sounding rhythms and experiments with sound.

Writing and recording music is much more involved now for artists.

Movment use technology & instruments to produce their sound. Where this leads going forward, time will tell.

The first single from the album, “Driven“, was released in October on 7” Vinyl and CD.

The new album “Broken Down” contains 9 tracks and is available now as a Digital Download from all Online Stores including Amazon and iTunes.

The CD is also in Independent Record Stores.

The album was recorded in End Of Light Studios, Mullingar.

To Celebrate the Launch of their new album “Broken Down“, MOVMENT are giving away an

MP3 of the track “Driven” all this week via Bandcamp.

http://movment.bandcamp.com/track/driven-free-mp3

It was mixed at Miloco, London by Darren Lawson and mastered in London by Fluid Mastering.

‘Broken Down’ will be released in the UK in Dec/Jan and Europe and the USA in 2013.

For Further Info:

www.distortthescene.com

www.movment.ie

OCHO’s debut album was released in May 2012 and instantly caught the attention of national radio. They were invited into RTÉ studios to record a live set for the 2FM Sessions and were awarded the Today FM recommended daily download, both very high accolades for an up and coming band in Ireland.  They performed a number of sold out shows and were given one of the very few performance slots at Ireland’s biggest music Festival, ELECTRIC PICNIC, where they performed on the main stage for Body & Soul.  They also played at Castlepalooza and the Beatyard music festival in Dublin.

From day one of it’s release, ‘Young Hunting’ was blogged about and reviewed worldwide.  Phrases such as ‘Stylishly agressive’, ‘hauntingly beautiful’ were used to express how reviewers were feeling when they heard OCHO’s debut album.

“‘Young Hunting‘ draws you instantly in, from beginning to end, floating out the speakers like a ghost effecting it’s surroundings” Mutantspace

Hotpress gave the album 4/5 stars “Her formaula is a winning one, using a blend of loops and beats that serve as an unsettling soundscape against which she can paint portraits of love and life” HOTPRESS MAGAZINE

OCHO’s sound really got under the skin of award winning Polish Director Marcin Koszalka, and in February 2012 they flew to Krácow to film their first music video with Koszalka and his film crew at his request and with his funding.  This video was for their first single and title track from the album “Young Hunting”.  Within 2 weeks the video had spread old school (word of mouth) style and had over 10,000 views online, with messages and blog reviews coming in from all over the world.

OCHO are an electronic group based in Ireland, but their sound is quite foreign to their surroundings.  They are lead singer and writer Stace Gill and Producer/Writer DOS, with guest musicians Eanna Hickey, Jill Deering, Lisa Cuthbert and Sarah Glesson.  The comfortably creepy and ambient record is most definitely influenced by an eclectic mix of music from all over the world.  OCHO have been compared to the bands they love, which is a huge compliment, but this still doesn’t define what this young Irish group sound like.  Think sweeter lighter Portishead with a dash of Massive Attack, Bat for Lashes, Imogen Heap and you’re a little close to what OCHO sounds like, but only close.  This is a unique group with their own sound, a truly timeless album that sinks in if given the chance.  The infectious sound of OCHO was achieved through hard work and dedication over a number of years, by two people driven by creativity and passion for what they love, music.

Next up for OCHO

Dublin City FM Schedule Launch Party – The Mercantile 30/11/12

YOUNG HEARTS RUN FREE, for the Simon Community on the 8/12/12 with other acts including The Strypes, Donal Lunny and comedian David O’Doherty – New Market Square CO-OP Dublin.

Openning for R.S.A.G – The Button Factory 22/12/12

www.ochomusic.ie