O Deer is the musical project of Oisín Walsh-Peelo. Inspired by folk idioms, Oisín’s music is mellow and delicate, and draws from his diverse musical language.
Now based in West-Cork, Oisín has travelled extensively with his music. As a session musician (piano, guitars, harp, low-whistles and vocalist) he has played throughout the USA, Europe, Ireland, and the UK. He has toured worldwide with a wide range of artists and bands including Hudson Taylor, Gabrielle Aplin, Hannah-Grace, Villagers, Sun Collective, and I Have a Tribe.
Since the release of his first EP ‘O Deer’, Oisín has played support for Hozier in the USA, Joseph (US), Departure Lounge (UK), among others.
As touring and live music came to a stop in 2020, Oisín used this slower pace to record his debut album, which is set for release September 2022.
This week, he shares the third song, Jet Lag.
Jet Lag is an ambient-style piano piece by O Deer. The track represents another facet of the music of Oisín Walsh-Peelo. Primarily a pianist in his working life as a session-musician, this piece is strongly connected to his roots. It has an improvised and meditative quality and endeavours to capture the breadth and resonance of piano strings – the space between the impact of a struck note and its journey to the next. Oisín hums along with the melody at the end of the track bringing actual breath into the recording. The piece encapsulates stillness and invites the listener to experience some of this calm.
Speaking of the single, Walsh-Peelo says:
“I spend a lot of time improvising on the piano and there’s no better time than at night when it’s dark and quiet. I have done this my whole life. As a teenager I would practise before school – Playing in the wee hours while it was still dark. It is a really comforting and cathartic thing for me. This piece came later on from one of those improvisations after I had landed in from a transatlantic flight and couldn’t sleep. It captured some of the stillness I felt at that time in the dead of night and the music stuck with me. I find myself drawn to the felted-piano sound at times like these as it’s so gentle yet full of resonance – the felt does something amazing to the sound bringing out more harmonics within the instrument, it produces bell-like tones that I find extremely relaxing.”
The sound of this track could be compared to the music of Olafur Arnalds, Nils Frahm or Max Richter. It is ambient in nature, more focused on timbre and tonal quality than that of the notes themselves. However, the inclusion of Oisín’s voice give Jet Lag its own, unique quality – The room and piano itself also feature largely in this recording. The creak of the wood and pedals can be heard throughout making the listener feel very close to the instrument and involved in the music.
Follow O Deer on social media:
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/odeermusic/
