• Irish Tracks of the Week – April 9

    It’s been another stellar week for new releases in every corner of the island. Delve into the best of the lot, featuring Katie Kim & Sean Mac Erlaine, D. McCabe, Beoga, Maria Kelly, TAYNE, Sinéad O’Brien, Elkin, James Bruce and more Katie Kim & Sean Mac Erlaine – Empire One Empire One by Katie Kim & Seán Mac Erlaine D. McCabe – The One They Couldn’t Fix The One They Couldn’t Fix by D. McCabe Maria Kelly – Martha Martha by Maria Kelly Sinéad O’Brien – Kid Stuff Beoga – Breathe EP James Bruce – Elephant Elephant by James Bruce…

  • Premiere: Ordnance Survey – Chrome feat. Sean Mac Erlaine & Kate Ellis

    Next month, Dublin’s Neil O’Connor aka Somadrone will re-emerge with a new collaboration album titled Relative Phase. Recorded at the National Concert Hall Studios in Dublin throughout 2017 and 2018, the album – which is released under the collaborative moniker Ordnance Survey – features O’Connor on various instruments (see the full impressive list below), Kate Ellis on cello, John McEntire (of Tortoise, The Sea & Cake et al.) on drums, Sean Mac Erlaine on alto sax, bass clarinet and electrics, and Linda Buckley with vocal processing. Across eight tracks, it’s a fully-realised, synth-worshipping triumph of dense textures and widescreen extemporization that attempts…

  • Melting Songs: Seán Mac Erlaine interviewed

    Woodwind specialist and experimental composer Seán Mac Erlaine creates deeply cerebral and alluringly unclassifiable music. Long celebrated for his own swirling, phantasmal compositions as well as his work with Swedish/Irish folk group , This is How We Fly, May saw the release of his latest solo album, the divine Music for Empty Ears. The album was recorded in collaboration with Norwegian luminaries, innovative live sampler Jan Bang and guitarist Eivind Aarset and also features the sumptuous wraith like vocals of Galway singer Sadhbh Ní Dhálaighhe. The dizzying array of talents on record combines to create one of the most seductive releases in Mac…

  • Album stream: Seán Mac Erlaine – A Slender Song

    Released via Ergodos on lovely orange vinyl on Friday coming, Dublin-based experimental multi-instrumentalist, composer and music producer Seán Mac Erlaine is streaming A Slender Song, an oft-hypnotic ten-track release comprised of entirely improvised live noise. Speaking of the recording and improvisational impetus behind the release, Mac Erlaine told us, “All these tracks were recorded in performance. And all the performances were entirely improvised, so I guess it’s an album of improvisations from gigs around Ireland over the last four years. I did spend a good bit of time editing, mixing and producing these into something which hopefully sounds like an album – I…