• Maija Sofia Announces Debut Album, Releases Lyric Video For ‘Edie Sedgwick’

    June 25, 2019 - By 

    Long a favourite here at The Thin Air, Dublin-based Galway artist Maija Sofia has announced details of her forthcoming debut album, Bath Time. Set for release via Trapped Animal Records in the Autumn, news of the debut comes accompanied with Sofia’s exquisite new single, ‘Edie Sedgwick’. Recorded and mixed by Chris Barry in Alfionn Studio, it’s a typically bewitching effort from the musician, marrying wistful lapsteel lines with sparse guitar, cello and Sofia’s skeletal confessionalism. “The song is about the demise of a relationship that was spiralling beyond anything that I could salvage,” said Sofia. “I wrote it during a summer I spent…

  • Watch: Yankari – Change Your Ways (Mago Mago)

    June 25, 2019 - By 

    Far be it from us to make a sweeping statement, but no one – and we repeat: no one – in Ireland can hold a live audience captive to rhythm quite like Afrobeat collective Yankari. We played their 2017 single ‘Enyimba‘ to death, and at last they’re back with ‘Change Your Ways (Mago Mago)’, the first single taken from their debut album, set for release through Hipdrop Records later this year. Masterful in their updating and expanding of Fela Kuti’s Afrobeat, the band offset its infectious groove with loaded cultural symbolism; the band sought out kids from Dublin’s inner city to sing Mago Mago’s…

  • Body & Soul 2019 (Friday)

    June 24, 2019 - By 

    Underneath a blazing sun and azure blue sky hoards of punters are flooding into the fields and woodlands of Westmeath for Body and Soul 2019. Celebrating its tenth anniversary, the festival is set to be a weekend rich in arts, culture and music. Across the sprawling fields festival goers begin to settle into their surroundings, consisting of metal fencing, sustainable vegan food vendors and “BRING YOUR TENTS HOME” posters. The sustainability-driven ethos of the festival is omnipresent. For the first few hours, it’s the usual beginning of the festival humdrum: people struggling to set up their tents, eating overpriced hotdogs…

  • Body & Soul 2019 (Saturday)

    June 25, 2019 - By 

    It’s early Saturday morning and the first few fragile souls have emerged from their tents to grab those precious few start of the day necessities: water, a greasy sandwich and a cup of tea. At the same time, there are a few not so fragile souls that have yet to sleep stood in a circle listening to Ennio Morricone’s soundtrack to ‘The Good, The Bad and The Ugly’. The classic ‘morning after’ feeling of festival season looms over the campsites of Body and Soul. For those that have managed to pull themselves together in the early hours of the day…

  • Monday Mixtape: HEX HUE

    June 24, 2019 - By 

    In the latest installment of Monday Mixtape, Belfast musician Katie Richardson aka HEX HUE selects a mixture of old and new favourite tracks, from Lykke Li to Christine and the Queens, that have “fed into the HEX HUE story in different ways”. So Sad So Sexy – Lykke Li Lykke Li was the first Scandinavian artist I really remember notably hearing loving. I love how much her sound has changed over the years and she has been a big influence on me – partly just by introducing me to a Geographical world of music that I have consistently fallen more and more…

  • the arts column: June 25th

    June 25, 2019 - By 

    This week we’ve details on the culmination of a young artistic writing programme and the details of one to be launched, the opening of a new joint exhibition featuring two behemoths of 20th century painting, and details on a host of events in Pallas Projects tied to their exhibition exploring queer culture in Ireland. As always, if you have an event, talk, exhibition, or would like to recommend one please get in touch via aidan[at]thethinair.net Book Launch | Clondalkin Library, Dublin This coming Saturday lunchtime sees the launch of This Being Where We Live in Clondalkin Library. The publication is…

  • the arts column: July 2nd

    July 2, 2019 - By 

    Summer is well and truly under way, with primary schools closed and the exams over. With that in mind we’ve details on some workshops and activities to keep young minds out of the way entertained both through the summer and beyond. As always, if you have an event, talk, exhibition, or would like to recommend one please get in touch via aidan[at]thethinair.net Kids Workshop | RHA Gallery, Dublin Saturday July 6th sees a new workshop in the RHA Gallery for 8 to 12 year old, hosted by artist Naomi Sex. Titled Why do we like the things and stuff that we like?, the workshop is performance…

  • Docs Ireland: Gaza

    June 24, 2019 - By 

    Is it strange to surf during a siege? The optics of a modern-day siege, and the visual poetics associated with the Gaza Strip, get scrambled and re-infused in Andrew McConnell and Garry Keane’s Gaza, closing night film of the Docs Ireland festival. Born out of McConnell’s “Gaza Surf Club” photography project, the film is a rare postcard from a desperate shoreline. “There is a barrier separating the people of Gaza from life itself”, muses a theatre performer, who provides poetic commentary on the struggle of those living in the ravaged Mediterranean enclave. Habitually designated as the world’s largest open-air prison, the Strip…

  • Watch: Captain A – Dog In The Woods

    June 23, 2019 - By 

    Captain A has returned with a more reserved affair than usual. Better known for his Tom Waits-y rasp and dreamy psyche-rock ventures with the Commercial Monsters, the Galway-based, Donegal-born songwriter contributed a new track, ‘Dog In The Woods’, to Cian Ó Cíobháin’s An Taobh Tuathail as part of the beloved RTÉ Raidió na Gaeltachta show’s recent 20th anniversary broadcasts. Composing with electronics for the first time, ‘Dog In The Woods’ is a delicate, touching affair with glistening synth lines and keys allowing his frank and deeply personal lyricism, delivered with an affectingly cracked vocal. “It was an acoustic track originally but as I’ve been exploring…