The Contemporary Music Centre welcomed Jimmy Deenihan TD, Minister for Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht, to launch CMC’s major digitisation initiative, the Irish Composers Project (ICP), 12pm, 24 May 2011.
The Irish Composers Project is a digital archive for Irish Contemporary Music and is a partnership between the Contemporary Music Centre and the An Foras Feasa research consortium comprising the music departments of Dundalk Institute of Technology, NUI Maynooth, and St Patrick's College, Drumcondra. The project also received funding from the Arts Council of Northern Ireland. Its overall purpose is to enable the research and promotion of the music of Irish Composers of the 20th and 21st century.
Launching the project Minister Deenihan complimented the Contemporary Music Centre and their partners in the Irish Composers Project on the initiative. “This project is of huge significance as it increases access for the general public as well as musicians, teachers, composers and performers to the music of Irish composers. It is a major achievement to have such a complete collection of work immediately available to browse online.”
CMC’s Director, Evonne Ferguson, outlined the importance of the launch to the CMC. “The launch of the ICP celebrates the contribution of Irish composers to the cultural development of this island and CMC’s unique position in the development of expertise in digital archiving. Of course the ongoing support of the Arts Council has been essential in CMC achieving the project goals to date”
Polar opposite to the delicate poise of the influential jazz bassist Scott LaFaro from which this Belfast quartet takes their name, LaFaro are a wrecking ball of a band. Their rhythmic post-hardcore is designed to pulverize dance floors and leave no bottle of beer undrunk – this is music distilled to its fundamental elements – 'We hark back to time when rock music was still fun' states lead rabble-rouser Johnny Black ominously.
Recalling The Jesus Lizard, Shellac, Helmet (with whom the band have toured Europe) and NI heroes Therapy? LaFaro have character, chops and emotion oozing through every seedy riff 'I love to write about life's dark little secrets – the things we all know happen but never get discussed'.
On 'Easy Meat' their sophomore offering, LaFaro have transplanted their sound into a black, hellish and apocalyptic space. Gone is the echo of grunge, it has been replaced with metal's electric chair. Part meditation on Northern Ireland, part metal concept album 'Easy Meat' is a dense, troubling and exhilaratingly kick ass affair – these are riffs to shoplift to.
The LP will be out at the back end of the summer, preceded in June by a limited edition 7” vinyl release of the title track and select, UK/Ireland tour dates with pop-punk princes Ash:
Fionn Regan has just released the first track from his upcoming album, “100 Acres of Sycamore”, and announced a series of live dates to coincide with the release.
The track, also called “100 Acres of Sycamore”, is now available for free download from Fionn’s website – www.fionnregan.com
The new album is scheduled for release this August. To hear some of Fionn’s new songs before then, you can catch him live at one of the following dates:
08/07/2011 Wexford Arts Centre
09/07/2011 Seamus Ennis Centre, Naul, Co. Dublin
10/07/2011 The Riverbank Theatre, Newbridge, Co. Kildare (with Gemma Hayes)
Hot on the heels of a major success at The Great Escape festival in the UK Ireland has just been announced as the country focus for Eurosonic Noorderslag 2012, one of the most important music events in Europe.
Eurosonic Noorderslag is Europe's main conference and showcase festival for European music. With 290 European acts performing in more than 40 venues and over 3,000 music professionals from all over Europe attending, Eurosonic Noorderslag is the ultimate place to be for music lovers and industry professionals.
Ireland and Irish bands have been making their mark at international showcases. The selection of Ireland as the spotlight country for Eurosonic Noorderslag 2012 is a real vote of confidence in the quality and range of Irish music currently available.
Music from Ireland, in partnership with Culture Ireland and IMRO, produce a number of Irish music showcases at events such as The Great Escape, South by Southwest and Canadian Music Week.
In the past few years Eurosonic Noorderslag focus countries have been France, Germany, Italy, Sweden, Belgium, Norway and The Netherlands. Peter Smidt, Creative Director of Eurosonic Noorderslag, explains the festival's choice for Ireland: "Ireland has a long and strong music tradition and has been influential to modern rock, punk and pop music. Ireland and RTE 2fm, in particular, have brought many great artists to Eurosonic Noorderslag from the start. Lots of Irish artists are making great music and are very successful worldwide. Enough reasons to put the focus on Ireland in 2012 at Eurosonic Noorderslag."
The Ireland focus will increase the number of Irish bands showcasing at Eurosonic Noorderslag and will also include panel discussions and guest speakers. Ireland at Eurosonic Noorderslag 2012 will be presented by Music from Ireland, in partnership with Culture Ireland and IMRO, and in association with 2fm.
Rising Irish 5-piece Storyfold will release their debut album Rocket Science, on Friday, May 20th and celebrate it with an exclusive headline performance in Whelan's, Dublin.
The band’s lead single from the album, “Trick Of Light”, has received widespread radioplay and has been playlisted on 2FM, Spin 1038, Spin South West, Shannonside, KCLR and Ocean FM to name but a few. The official video, cut by U2 editor Stephen O’Connell, is an instant hit on Youtube.
All of this has resulted in the band being confirmed for a slew of summer music festivals including The Sea Sessions, Temple House Festival, Indiependence and the list continues to grow.
Rocket Science has been produced by Greg Haver (yes, THE Greg Haver. The one who has previously twiddled knobs for Manic Street Preachers, Lost Prophets, Super Furry Animals, Bullet for My Valentine, Catatonia and CODES) and early feedback suggests it’s going to be massive. It was recorded in Modern World Studios, Bristol where the band had to juggle studio time with soul icon Sade!
These truly are exciting times for Storyfold and their loyal fanbase. Their debut single, Delphine Wakes, was a massive radio hit and the follow up, Behind Closed Doors, proved just as popular. Airplay led to dozens of gigs, rave-reviews led to more, including an incredible gig supporting Indie icons, Feeder, in Dublin's Academy.
In the style of all good new-fashioned romances, Storyfold met on the Internet. Back in the day (well…April 2009) Paddy McKenna took to the web’s drumming fora in search of a graceful tub-thumper. He hit the jackpot in finding drummer/pianist/human-talking-machine, Lindsey Hogan.
Lindsey is that most elusive of individuals, being both a drummer and musician. As the collaboration progressed her melodic instinct grew stronger, and after much searching of the soul, she ceded control of the sticks and found her home among the ebony and ivory. Storyfold’s distinctive sound was taking shape…
Jim McGourty was signed-up for his good looks, machismo and bass chops before another call to find a drummer was beamed into cyber-space. Clearly, fortune was smiling on the fledgling rockers. Despite anticipating weeks of ear-bleeding frustration, Storyfold were blown away by the brilliantly talented Sean McDonnell at the very first audition. The final piece in the Storyfold jigsaw fell into place in September 2010 when ex-Whiskey Limbs guitarist Michael Fortune assumed lead duties. The line-up was complete.
What they say about Storyfold:
“How good does that sound? No, that's not some big American band who has sold 20 million albums. They're Irish and that's Storyfold.” – Rick O'Shea, 2FM
“No one makes better radio friendly catchy pop songs with an attitude like the ultra cool Storyfold. Their three singles released to date are all brilliant and will form the backbone to a wonderful debut” – 2UIBestow Blog
"…who am I kidding, it's absolutely brilliant!" KC, Today FM
Storyfold are:
Paddy McKenna – Lead Vocals and Guitar, Lindsey Hogan – Piano and Vocals,
Michael Fortune – Lead Guitar, Jim McGourty – Bass and Sean McDonnell – Drums.
Congratulations to Villagers who have just been awarded an Ivor Novello in the category “Best Song Musically and Lyrically” for the wonderful “Becoming a Jackal”. The awards ceremony took place in London today.
Villagers will be appearing at several festivals throughout the Summer including Marlay Park (Sat 23rd July), T in the Park, Latitude, Eden Sessions, Green Man & Field Day.
Workshop 4 – July 25th to the 29th Monday to Friday 10:00 – 17:00 ( weekdays )
Hosted by producer/musician Ken Mc Hugh
clients include…
Bon Jovi/Cathy Davey/Laura Izibor
autamata/Celine Dion
Channel 4/RTE/CSI TV SHOW
Woody allen/mtv
Fil Campbell continues her tour around Ireland in May with her two accompanying musicians – Tom McFarland on percussion and Brendan Emmett on guitar and mandolin. The concert is full of old Irish favourites that Fil learned as a child along with some of her own songs and tunes from Brendan and Tom.
This tour has already taken the trio to Omagh, Newry, the Naul and Castleblaney and they will continue at the following venues before the end of May.
Tues 24th May: Mill Theatre, Dundrum, Dublin.
Sat 27th May: Tech Amergin Theatre, Waterville, Co. Kerry
Sun 28th May: St John’s Arts Centre, Listowel, Co. Kerry
Songbirds Part Two: Farewell to Cold Winter is the title of Fil's new CD and she will be including some of these songs in these concerts. It is a second collection of songs to come out of the successful TV series Songbirds. Songbirds, was aired successfully in Ireland on RTE and was highly acclaimed critically. In the series Fil paid tribute to the women singers popular in Ireland in the first half of the 20th century.
Farewell to Cold Winter is a nod back to a gentler era of music, and Fil’s voice really suits the sentiment of these beautiful old gems.
“When I went in to the studio a couple of years ago to start work on a new CD, I realised that there were still a lot of songs associated with the Songbirds project which I wanted to record.
For example, I discovered a beautiful song in my grandfather’s collection of old 78s called The Connemara Shore, which had been recorded by Jack Feeney in the 1930s. This started my journey into the songs of that era and lead to an album tribute of Delia Murphy songs, which in turn lead to the television series Songbirds. But The Connemara Shore didn’t fit into the series, so I had to do a second CD in order to get a chance to sing it!! Seamus Brett accompanies me for that song on piano.
Several of these songs, like the Spinning Wheel and If I Were A Blackbird, I had learned as a child from my mother and others I fell in love with as I researched and got to know the lives and works of the Songbirds ladies.”
James Vincent McMorrow has been confirmed as a special guest on the eighth and final episode in the current series of ‘Later…With Jools Holland’. McMorrow will form part of a stellar line-up, which also features Friendly Fires, Blondie, Yuck and Beverley Knight. The show will broadcast live on Tuesday May 24 (10pm, BBC2) before airing in full on Friday May 27 (11.50pm, BBC2).
James will perform songs from his acclaimed debut album, ‘Early In The Morning’, which recently went Gold in Ireland. He has since gone on to tour the UK, America and Europe, sell out two London shows (St Pancras Church, the ICA) and recently saw round-the-block queues for his stunning appearance at Great Escape Festival. James will also play key spots at Glastonbury’s Park Stage (June 26), Cambridge Folk Festival (July 28) and Camp Bestival (July 29). James returns for dates in US and also supports Arcade Fire at Montreux Jazz Festival in Canada. More will be announced shortly: in the meantime, James will release a brand new single, the stirring ‘Sparrow & The Wolf’, on June 24th
The Irish tour of Movement of Sound will take place in venues in Cork, Limerick and Dublin this summer. The project will combine the art forms of dance and music in a series of events throughout the month of June.
Movement of Sound seeks to combine movement and sound in a way that will speak across a number of artistic platforms, attracting fresh and untried audiences and creating new and more complete experiences of movement, sound, movement through sound and sound through movement.
This project will involve 4 artists: Karen Power (composer / live electronics), Mary Nunan (dancer and choreographer), Deirdre O’Leary (clarinet/ bass clarinet) and Kate Ellis (cello).
Movement of Sound combines a new collaborative work by Power/Nunan with exciting Irish premiers by international composers; Saariaho, Tiensuu and Hyla.
Tour Dates:
June 14th, Triskel, Christchurch, Cork (in association with MidSummer Festival), 1pm. Tickets: €8/10 www.triskelart.com
June 15th, The Belltable, Limerick, 8pm. Tickets: €10/12
www.belltable.ie
