ā- NEW EDITIONS -
ā
LITHOPHONICA - a collaborative CD album by Gayle Young & James Harley featuring 35 tracks spanning two CD's
Available from the Farpoint Recordings Bandcamp shop
ā
snow piled in a silver bowl by Quiet Music Ensemble
snow piled high in a shiny bowl features works by Kathy Hinde, Anna Murray, Christopher Fox, Risin Singh and Susan Geaney. From floating harmonic textures to gentle emptinesses, from deep drone to abstract noise, this is an album that visits distinct sonic worlds brought together by QME’s unique, entrancing aesthetic. The album explores the spirit of Noh theatre, just-tuned harmonies inspired by James Tenney, especially built instruments, deep purrs and fragile, vulnerable sonorities, each piece a unique contemplation.
ā
Available from the Farpoint Recordings Bandcamp shopā
ā
faint red / pencil lines by Phil Maguire - Out Now!
CD & Digital Album - available 18th December from Farpoint Recordings Bandcamp Shop
Launch Event in The Guesthouse, Cork
An evening of sound in The Guesthouse, Cork 6pm, 18th December to celebrate the release of faint red / pencil lines!
Phil Maguire - StanisÅaw Welbel - IrenÄ Murphy - Mick O'Shea - Anthony Kelly
āā
Demonstrable Progress by Brian Duggan & David Bremner- Out Now!
12" coloured vinyl and booklet, digital album & video - available from the Farpoint Recordings Bandcamp Shopāāā
ā
Sonic Hauntings in a Big House by Joseph Young - Out Now!
Vinyl edition with expanded artwork and essay by Salomé Voegelin - available here
LP with printed inner, 4 page pamphlet; Digital Album with bonus track (not on vinyl) plus unlimited streaming
ā
Six New Works For Violin, a new CD and digital album by Larissa O'Grady - Out Now!
Featuring David Bremner, Jenn Kirby, Judith Ring, Anselm McDonnell, Robert Coleman, Fiona Linnane
Album Launch - The Contemporary Music Centre, Thursday 7 November, from 6 - 8pm
19 Fishamble Street, Temple Bar, Dublin, D08 T2W9
- free admission, tickets available from CMC -āā
āā
Always The Same, Never The Same by ensemble 0 - out now! -
CD & Digital Album from ensemble 0 - Jean-François Brohée, Sylvain Chauveau & Florent Garnierā
āāā
- OTHER NEWS -
āāANIMA MUNDI #5 and Zeitgeist Irland 24 - Farpoint Recordings Label Night at Morphine Raum, Berlin
Niamh O’Brien, Phil Maguire, Joseph Young, Doreen Kennedy, Anthony Kellyā
ā
Köpenicker Str. 147, 10997 Berlin
Hinterhof 1. Etage
ā
Saturday, 12.10.24, door 17:00
15 - 12 Euro At The DoorāØ, Presale Tickets available hereāā
. . .
ā
New Sounds with John Schaeferāā
The February 12th edition of New Sounds will feature Sonic Hauntings in a Big House, the recent album on by Joseph Young
A big thank you to John and New York Public Radio. Listen to New Sounds with John Schaeferāā here
. . .
Relevant Tones #431 - Ian Wilson discusses his new album Orpheus Down with Seth Boustead
Composer Ian Wilson’s ten-movement piece Orpheus Down is inspired by the story of Orpheus’ journey to the Underworld to bring his lover Eurydice back from the dead. The myth and its themes of deep and dark inspire fascinating music on a new release featuring bass clarinettist Gareth Davis and double-bassist Dario Calderone, for whom the piece was written.
āListen to the interview hereā
ā
Orpheus Down is out now on Farpoint Recordings
CD copies available here DL version available here
. . .
listening to the wind, a new audio work by Joseph Young can be heard on Framework Radio. Listen here
. . .
NEW! LITHOPHONICA I & II by Gayle Young and James Harley
A new double CD produced in association with Ars Subtilior
Stones, the instruments featured on this album, are joined by sounds of bells, sticks and Young's stringed instruments as Harley expands their resonance, shaping sounds through granulation, layering, trans-position, delays, and spatialisation. Bells resonate with stones, stones rock on strings, and resonant sticks bounce on strings.
Young's collection of resonant stones from the shores of Newfoundland, resonant sticks from abandoned beaver lodges in Ontario, played with bells and assorted hardware, are combined with stringed instruments she designed and built.
As hex-bolts are rolled over stones resting on strings, their vibrations cause the strings to sound. Signal processing simultaneously expands the depth and frequency range, adding complexity through layering and subtle shifts over time.
When Young walks along a beach she watches for flat stones, usually rounded by waves.
She tests each stone for tone, tapping it with another stone while holding it at its nodes to let it vibrate. Stones can play each other and can be set on strings so that both the strings and the stones are heard.
All compositions by James Harley and Gayle Young
Produced by James Harley, Gayle Young & William Blakney for Art Subtilior
Available from the Farpoint Recordings Bandcamp Shop
. . .ā
NEW! snow piled in a silver bowl by Quiet Music Ensemble
We are delighted to announce news of a wonderful new album release by Quiet Music Ensemble
available from Farpoint Recordings on the 20th February!
ā
snow piled in a silver bowl by Quiet Music Ensemble
Kathy Hinde - Acts of Balancing and Unbalancing 20’21”
Anna Murray - Aioi: leaves laden with words 20’07”
Christopher Fox - qui/nt/et 11’22”
Rishin Singh - grisaille no.1 23’46”
Susan Geaney - Vacuum 07’36”
snow piled in a silver bowl features works by Kathy Hinde, Anna Murray, Christopher Fox, Risin Singh and Susan Geaney. From floating harmonic textures to gentle emptinesses, from deep drone to abstract noise, this is an album that visits distinct sonic worlds brought together by QME’s unique, entrancing aesthetic. The album explores the spirit of Noh theatre, just-tuned harmonies inspired by James Tenney, especially built instruments, deep purrs and fragile, vulnerable sonorities, each piece a unique contemplation.
ā
Quiet Music Ensemble
Seán Mac Erlaine, clarinets and objects
Roddy O’Keeffe, trombone and objects
John Godfrey, electric guitar, electronics and objects
Ilse De Ziah, cello and objects
Dan Bodwell, double bass and objects
ā
Digital album with unlimited streaming available from 20th February from the Farpoint Recordings Bandcamp shop
. . .ā
New! faint red / pencil lines by Phil Maguire
CD + Digital Album with unlimited streaming - out 18th December
ā
faint red/pencil lines, the new album from Phil Maguire, is a study in endless yet microscopic electronic music. The two pieces for synthesiser and computer-generated tones invite the listener to encounter the sounds solely as an experience, in which they are suspended in a totality. No beginning nor end, only sound.
- Launch Event in The Guesthouse, Cork -
An evening of sound in The Guesthouse, Cork 6pm, 18th December to celebrate the release of faint red / pencil lines!
Phil Maguire - StanisÅaw Welbel - IrenÄ Murphy - Mick O'Shea - Anthony Kelly
ā
...the two tracks that comprise this album are truly remarkable.
Massimo Ricci reviewing Faint red / pencil lines in Touching Extremes. Read the full review here
ā
You can hear a track excerpt on Dublin Digital Radio - Sources Of Uncertainty here
ā
. . .ā
ā
New! Sonic Hauntings In A Big House by Joseph Young - Out Now!
ā
We are very pleased to announce Sonic Hauntings in a Big House, the new Vinyl LP & Digital Album by Joseph Young now available from the Farpoint Recordings Bandcamp shop!
ā
“Here its houseness is built from fictions rather than stone…Thus I hear the elegiac moments of Young’s album not as an end to the big house’s history but as the celebration of the end of its singular narration”
Salomé Voegelin, extract from her essay The Big House Made Of Sound.
Sound artist Joseph Young releases his debut album Sonic Hauntings in a Big House on the 5th December through Farpoint Recordings. A specialist in the binaural field recording technique, Young’s recent artistic practice focuses on aspects of sonic hauntology as it relates to the heritage space. The album structure of ‘Inside’ and ‘Outside’, carefully arranged across two sides of vinyl represents the domestic and the external, and presents the listener with an elegiac soundtrack which subtly deconstructs the immutable layers of power and privilege, as it reverberates throughout its imaginary halls.
The Vinyl Album comes with a printed inner sleeve and a 4 page pamphlet featuring the special commissioned essay The Big House Made Of Sound by writer Salomé Voegelin. The Digital Album version now comes with a bonus track not included on the vinyl, full album artwork package including Salomé Voegelin's essay plus unlimited streaming.
Copies available from our Bandcamp Shop here
āā
ā
New! Six New Works For Violin, a new CD and digital album by Larissa O'Grady
A programme of new music composed by a collection of 6 Irish composers including
David Bremner, Jenn Kirby, Judith Ring, Anselm McDonnell, Robert Coleman, Fiona Linnane
ā
Album Launch - The Contemporary Music Centre, Thursday 7 November, from 6 - 8pm
19 Fishamble Street, Temple Bar, Dublin, D08 T2W9
This project came into existence as part of the Contemporary Artists Network, established by the Contemporary Music Centre, which pairs composers and performers interested in engaging with contemporary music from Ireland as artistic partners. As part of this Network, in 2022 Larissa O'Grady commissioned 6 new works for violin and electronics/multimedia by a group of 6 composers from Ireland, collaborating to explore the possibilities of new sounds, which culminated in a public performance of the commissioned works for violin and multimedia. These commissions were generously supported by Arts Council Ireland.
Featuring a wide range of presentations from spoken word to sensor led playback, live and fixed electronics, microtonal writing conveying the chemical process of burning sugar, and a live field recordist recording and playing back the violin and sounds of a greater spotted woodpecker.
ā
CD's ship within 2 working days
Free shipping within Ireland until 13th November!
ā
CD and Digital Album available for instant streaming/download here
ā
. . .ā
ā
New! Demonstrable Progress by Brian Duggan and David Bremner
12”, 45rpm, single side coloured vinyl, first edition of 200 hand numbered copies
Digital Album & Demonstrable Progress video with unlimited streaming
āā
Listen and Purchase from the Farpoint Recordings Bandcamp Shop
ā
āLaunching 25th October at Kirkos Space, 7.30pm
Kirkos Space, UNIT 44, 44 Park Shopping Centre, Prussia St, Dublin, D07 AE10āØā
The event will be opened by Ciarán Crilly Associate Professor of Orchestral Conducting in the UCD School of Music, Conductor/Artistic Director of the UCD Symphony Orchestra followed by screenings of Demonstrable Progress with sound via vinyl playback, and a live performance by David Bremner.
ā
You can watch a short trailer for the project here
ā
Demonstrable Progress is a project by artist, Brian Duggan and composer, David Bremner exploring the decommissioning of the Sellafield Nuclear Power Plant with a new composition for piano and four hands, and a video work using original footage from inside the radioactive tanks. This musical composition responds to the unclear, seemingly mysterious, quality of the underwater footage with a quasi-Impressionist waterscape, distorted with scuzzy and murky colours. The intentionality we infer from the robots’ actions is reflected in an étude-like deliberateness. Running since 1965, Sellafield is a British Nuclear Power Plant located in Cumbria, directly across the sea from Ireland. It is now being decommissioned and much of the site is now classed as nuclear waste. An environment too dangerous for humans to work in, a variety of robots are employed to open up, empty and clean the various toxic and inaccessible spaces.
ā
Brian Duggan lives and works in Dublin, 128 miles from the Sellafield Nuclear Power Plant, across the Irish Sea.
David Bremner grew up in West Cumbria with Sellafield an everyday part of the landscape (his father worked there as a nuclear physicist). He now lives in Dublin.
Demonstrable Progress is available on vinyl and digital formats. The 12” 45rpm vinyl comes as limited edition transparent orange coloured disc with a folded cover containing notes and images by the artists, all housed in a heavy transparent pvc sleeve. The 12” vinyl is published in a first edition of just 200 copies. Vinyl purchase comes with free Digital Album & Demonstrable Progress Video with unlimited streaming through the Bandcamp app.
ā
Listen & Purchase from the Farpoint Recordings Bandcamp Shop
ā
ā
NEW! - sour, shiny, glinting, shuddering by Quiet Music Ensemble - out now!
Danny McCarthy Irene Murphy Mick O’Shea
ā
delicately ambiguous, and entirely compelling
Journal of Music
Three outstanding sound artists - Danny McCarthy, Irene Murphy, Mick O’Shea and QME created the amazing sounds on this release. Inspired by graphics and texts and the lo-fi sounds of especially made rotating speakers, QME explores rich soundscapes ranging from the barely audible sounds of the forest to a kind of unearthly, electrical soundscape of disembodied voices. Rich and varied textures—sour, shiny, glinting and shuddering—run the gamut of sounds from ripping to caressing, from abstract to fleetingly pitched, from weirdly rhythmic to ambient. QME’s signature acutely honed sense of sonority and a spellbinding, exploratory and contemplative engagement with sound make this a sonic journey unlike any other.
ā
This is the second of three new releases by Quiet Music Ensemble for 2024
ā
Irene Murphy FOUND by chance (version1)
Danny McCarthy The Great Listenin(g)
Mick O’Shea PRAEST
Irene Murphy FOUND by chance (version 2) Total Timing 59’00”
ā
QME is Seán Mac Erlaine, Roddy O’Keeffe, John Godfrey, Ilse De Ziah & Dan Bodwellā
The project is supported by the Arts Council / An Chomhairle Ealíon
ā
Download & Unlimited Streaming available from the Farpoint Recordings Bandcamp shop
āā
. . .āā
Tony Langlois, 1960-2024
Farpoint Recordings are saddened to learn of the passing of Tony Langlois. Tony’s creative practice included live electronic improvisation, soundscape composition, film soundtracks and songs. Many of these works were the result of collaborative engagements with sound artists, film-makers and performers. Tony's contribution to the Cork sound art and film scene is immeasurable.
Tony contributed to many Farpoint Recordings releases including just listening : : : Ireland calling : : : : : and Sonic Vigil V. He was an ethnomusicologist with a background in North African musical traditions and taught sound and other kinds of media at Mary Immaculate College in Limerick. He curated the music programme in the IndieCork Festival of Film and Music in Cork and was a founding member of ISSTA. May he rest well.
. . .ā
āANIMA MUNDI #5 and Zeitgeist Irland 24 - Farpoint Recordings Label Night at Morphine Raum
Niamh O’Brien, Phil Maguire, Joseph Young, Doreen Kennedy, Anthony Kellyā
ā
Köpenicker Str. 147, 10997 Berlin
Hinterhof 1. Etage
ā
Saturday, 12.10.24, door 17:00
15 - 12 Euro At The DoorāØ, Presale Tickets available here
āTicket covers all label night events and generous discount on all mech table items
ā
Irish sound art label Farpoint Recordings is delighted to be involved in ANIMA MUNDI #5 and Zeitgeist Irland 24, and to continue its collaboration with Errant Sound, Berlin. Farpoint Recordings label founder Anthony Kelly and Janine Eisenächer from Errant Sound present a very special label night at Morphine Raum, Berlin featuring a series of live performances, an album launch, and discussions with artists associated with the Farpoint Recordings label. These artists include Niamh O'Brien, Joseph Young, Phil Maguire and Doreen Kennedy. There will also be a merch table with a selection of vinyl, CD's and cassettes available at reduced prices during the event.
Phil Maguire will launch his new CD & Digital album faint red / pencil lines, a study in endless yet microscopic electronic music. Phil will perform live, followed by a short discussion about his artist practice. Niamh O' Brien is currently developing a new album, set for release during Spring 2025. Her live performance, featuring harp and field recordings, will reflect some of the work on the forthcoming album. Farpoint Recordings is renowned for their beautifully presented vinyl albums, CD's, books and cassette releases. Photographer and designer Doreen Kennedy will present a short discussion based around some of her recent design projects with the label. Anthony Kelly and Phil Maguire present a live set with electronics, small amplified objects, self built instruments and field recordings. Joseph Young will present a live performance, short listening session and panel discussion based on material drawn from his eagerly anticipated new vinyl album Sonic Hauntings in a Big House. The album, due for release during December 2024 can be preordered with a 10% discount at this event.
The label night is presented by Errant Sound / ANIMA MUNDI #5 and is part of Zeitgeist Irland 24, an initiative by Culture Ireland and the Embassy of Ireland in Germany.. ANIMA MUNDI #5 is funded and kindly supported by Musikfonds/ die Beauftragte der Bundesregierung für Kultur und Medien, Zeitgeist Irland 24 and by the Stiftung für Deutsch-Polnische Zusammenarbeit.
ā
. . .āā
ā
New! faint red / pencil lines, a new CD & digital album by Phil Maguire
Album launch at Morphine Raum, Saturday 12th October
The sheer minimalism of the music (faint red / pencil lines), with hardly any change or development, and it's something I play at a relatively medium volume in my living room, so it gently fills up my space with humming tones. Occasionally, I move around in this space, noting slight changes in the sound, a different kind of receiving these frequencies, and all is good. This is my kind of music, the one love I have had for a long time now, and the endless variations of minimalist drone music become one significant work of minimalism in itself. Maguire delivers an essential part of that. (FdW)
Frans de Waard, Vital Weekly, Number 1455
ā
faint red/pencil lines, the new album from Phil Maguire, is a study in endless yet microscopic electronic music. The two pieces for synthesiser and computer-generated tones invite the listener to encounter the sounds solely as an experience, in which they are suspended in a totality. No beginning nor end, only sound.
faint red / pencil lines will launch āāduring the Farpoint Recordings at Morphine Raum, Berlin, 12th October.
The album will be available at the special launch price of 10 euros.
The Farpoint Recordings Label Night at Morphine Raum, Berlin is part of ANIMA MUNDI #5 and Zeitgeist Irland 24
āāā
Available soon from the Farpoint Recordings webshop and Bandcamp
ā
COMING SOON! Lithophonica I & II by Gayle Young and James Harley
A new double CD produced in association with Ars Subtilior
Stones, the instruments featured on this album, are joined by sounds of bells, sticks and Young's stringed instruments as Harley expands their resonance, shaping sounds through granulation, layering, trans-position, delays, and spatialisation. Bells resonate with stones, stones rock on strings, and resonant sticks bounce on strings.
Young's collection of resonant stones from the shores of Newfoundland, resonant sticks from abandoned beaver lodges in Ontario, played with bells and assorted hardware, are combined with stringed instruments she designed and built.
As hex-bolts are rolled over stones resting on strings, their vibrations cause the strings to sound. Signal processing simultaneously expands the depth and frequency range, adding complexity through layering and subtle shifts over time.
When Young walks along a beach she watches for flat stones, usually rounded by waves.
She tests each stone for tone, tapping it with another stone while holding it at its nodes to let it vibrate. Stones can play each other and can be set on strings so that both the strings and the stones are heard.
All compositions by James Harley and Gayle Young
Produced by James Harley, Gayle Young & William Blakney for Art Subtilior
Available soon from the Farpoint Recordings webshop and Bandcamp
ā
ā
. . .ā
ā
NEW! - Always The Same, Never The Same by ensemble 0 - available now!
Music that's immediately attractive and persistently elusive
Wire magazine
Farpoint Recordings are delighted to announce Always The Same, Never The Same, the new CD + DL by ensemble 0
The Brussels-based members of ensemble 0 (Jean-François Brohée, Florent Garnier and Sylvain Chauveau) will release their stunningly beautiful new album Always The Same, Never The Same on the 15th August through Farpoint Recordings. The album comprises of nine delicate acoustic compositions, varying in pace and mood featuring harmonium, organ, piano, guitar, prepared guitar and percussion.
ā
Available now from the Farpoint Recordings webshop
ā
āā
"Regenerative ambience that bounds with lightness and beauty, and sweetness and peace"
Tiny Mix Tapes
Always The Same, Never The Same is available in CD and digital formats. The CD version comes as a limited edition 4 panel gatefold eco-pack sleeve with an A4 size insert. This insert also doubles as a poster and can be shipped flat upon request. The beautiful album artwork features a series of overlapping maps that create new imaginary topographies. The DL version comes with full artwork pdfs and unlimited streaming.
Published as a first edition of just 500 copies and available through the Farpoint Recordings webshop from 15th August!
Prefer DL + unlimited streaming?
Digital download version (with a pdf booklet featuring complete artwork) and unlimited streaming from our Bandcamp shop.
Streaming via Apple Music and Bandcamp
. . .
āā
ā
New! whole body like a mouth by Quiet Music Ensemble
ā
4 tracks totalling almost 97 minutes of music and a 30 page pdf book featuring detailed notes
ā
whole body like a mouth by Quiet Music Ensemble is the first of three new digital albums planned for 2024 and features works by
Michael Pisaro-Liu, Jesse Ronneau, John Cage and Andrew Crossley.
Silent stones; silent leaves; silent sticks; silent rain… these are sections from Michael Pisaro’s one year (changes) - none of them silent, but all of them about the astonishing beauty of abstract sounds and the sense of immense focus that arises when they are brought together with love and finesse.
ā
Michael Pisaro-Liu one year (changes)
Jesse Ronneau Säulen
John Cage Four6
Andrew Crossley whole body like a mouth
The pieces in this release are exquisite examples of sound poised as if floating in a sea of silence, each piece shaping its own fascinating challenge for the musicians of QME. This music is restrained, intriguing, tiny and yet somehow world-spanning, and - above all - deeply moving in a very unexpected way.
QME is Seán Mac Erlaine, Roddy O’Keeffe, John Godfrey, Ilse De Ziah & Dan Bodwell
ā
Download & Unlimited Streaming - Farpoint Recordings Bandcamp Shop
The project is supported by the Arts Council / An Chomhairle Ealíon.
. . .
New! Secret Space CD - Book, DL by Benjamin Dwyer and Alison Grace Koehler - out now
ā
Sneezing and a Jupiter hold
in my throat
āØthe Belgian beerāØ
awoken in the night, how often
statue of an elfin manāØ
standing on a side-slung sphere
dead wasps everywhere
rain drop on my knuckle
the paper will start to bleed
ā
Secret Space is a collaboration between composer Benjamin Dwyer and poet Alison Grace Koehler. The resulting work features music by Benjamin Dwyer combined with poems and spoken word by Alison Grace Koehler. In response, Farpoint Recordings have produced a limited edition CD, DL & 40 page book, with images by Tony Carragher. The audio CD features a performance of the music and poetry of Dwyer & Koehler, while the 40 page book containers Koehler’s poems and full colour photography by Carragher throughout. The 21 x 25 cms large format book is printed on heavy uncoated papers with the CD attached to the inside cover. This first edition is limited to just 200 copies.
Recent live performances of Secret Space in the James Joyce Centre, Dublin and Pálás, Galway played to full houses and were very well received. Keep an ear open for news of more performances later in the Autumn. The project has been supported by Melodium Studio Montreuil and Middlesex University London. A big thank you to Nicole Rourke from Anna Livia Creative and the staff at James Joyce Cultural Centre, Dublin and Pálás, Galway.
Copies available from the Farpoint Recordings webshop and Bandcamp
The project has been supported by Melodium Studio Montreuil and Middlesex University London
. . .
ā
New! Orpheus Down, the new CD & DL by Ian Wilson - available now from the Farpoint Recordings webshop
ā
Orpheus Down consists of ten movements, each relating to a specific part of Orpheus’ journey. The CD features detailed liner notes by Ian Wilson alongside images by photographer Doreen Kennedy.
Orpheus Down makes much use of extended playing techniques, controlled improvisation, and the vast experience of the two marvellous performers. The music seeks the emotional heart of each scene but at the same time embraces painting pictures and evoking atmospheres – indeed, could almost be seen as a series of studies in colour and sonority. Through the aggregation of dark hues, emotional gestures and narrative signposts a journey results, echoing that of Orpheus in some elemental way.
CD copies of Orpheus Down available here
Prefer digital? DL with full artwork booklet available from our Bandcamp shop
The project is supported by the Arts Council / An Chomhairle Ealíon.
. . .
New! Sonic Hauntings in a Big House, the new digital album by sound artist Joseph Young is available now from the Farpoint Recordings Bandcamp shop
Sonic Hauntings in a Big House will be launched during a special event at The Orangery, Killruddery House, Co. Wicklow, 5.30pm Thursday 4th April, 2024
Sonic Hauntings in a Big House, the new digital album by sound artist Joseph Young emerged out of a practice-based PhD research project, Killruddery: Listening to the Archive (2019-23). In his debut album for Farpoint Recordings, sound artist Joseph Young summons the rich and complex histories of the Big House in Ireland through field recordings, voice(s) and retro-futuristic sonic layering. Through exploring the extensive family archive held at Bray’s Killruddery House & Gardens, Young devised both a geolocated soundscape in Killruddery’s grounds and this accompanying record, which further proposes a spectral glimpse of a lost past. The digital album will be available from our Bandcamp shop. The physical vinyl LP version of this album will be released by Farpoint Recordings later in 2024.
- Also launching during this event -
Mapping The Ancestors is a new limited edition artwork designed by the award winning Or Studio in collaboration with artist Joseph Young, to accompany Young’s site-specific sound work, The Ancestors. Made as part of Young’s PhD research, The Ancestors draws on the rich private archive held at Killruddery House and Gardens, where historical estate papers sit alongside personal diaries and letters. At this special launch reception, Young and Killruddery's archivist Xenia Meath will discuss the significance of this fascinating repository and lead a short tour of The Ancestors ‘sound walk’ and the archive itself.
The event is held at Killruddery House and Gardens’ beautiful Orangery, with a drinks reception courtesy of Killruddery Arts.
With thanks to Fionnuala Ardee, Xenia Meath (Killruddery House) and Anne Mullee (Mermaid Arts Centre)
Sonic Hauntings in a Big House is supported by the Arts Council / An Chomhairle Ealíon.
. . .
ā
Always The Same, Never The Same by ensemble 0 - out 15th August - preorder available soon -
Music that's immediately attractive and persistently elusive
Wire magazine
Announcing Always The Same, Never The Same, a new CD by ensemble 0
The Brussels-based members of ensemble 0 (Jean-François Brohée, Florent Garnier and Sylvain Chauveau) will release their stunningly beautiful new album Always The Same, Never The Same on the 15th August through Farpoint Recordings. The album comprises of nine delicate acoustic compositions, varying in pace and mood featuring harmonium, organ, piano, guitar, prepared guitar and percussion.
. . .
… brilliantly crafted, intellectually rigorous, some of the very greatest pure electronic works in this island at present.
Bernard Clarke, Blue Of The Night, RTÉ lyric fm
ā
From its opening with “Swash (theme)”, this album reveals its progressive air with that analogous sound of epic mood and evocative arpeggios of the Kosmische Musik, as well as the Medieval fanfare of “Passages”. The elegant melody of the piano phrases in “Swash (solo)” (and in several passages on the album) feel truly poignant, also showing off a cinematic character. Victor Lazzarini envelops us with his beautiful music with a dose of nostalgia that stirs our memories.
Guillermo Escudero, Loop Music Magazine
Announcing vlz, a new CD by Victor Lazzarini available now from the Farpoint Recordings webshop
This album is, from many perspectives, a new departure for Victor Lazzarini. With it, he has rediscovered some of the music he has appreciated since his youth. It also marks a return to performance. As a pianist, synthesist, and keyboard player, he has played every single part that was recorded for each track of this collection. This allowed him to work through new compositions from an improvisation point of view, which is a practice he had not used for a long time. The title of the album somehow reflects this, as Lazzarini found a way of doing things that seemed to offer āØvery low impedance in a metaphoric sense.
ā
You can purchase your copy here
vlz will be launched at 7.30pm, 29th February at Riverstown Hall, Maynooth University, County Kildare with a short live performance by Victor Lazzarini. All are welcome to attend.
. . .
. . .
Your Location In Space by Phil Maguire - 12 - 6pm, Saturday 30 March, 2024
The Guesthouse, 10 Chapel Street, Cork, Ireland
ā
John Cage says that sound simply gets “louder and quieter...higher and lower...longer and shorter” in its activity. Phil Maguire is similarly fascinated by electronic sound being nothing other than itself; his work is solely an experience of sound. Your Location in Space is an environment in which he explores the possibility of his work creating an acoustic space, that affords the listener an opportunity to reflect within an enveloping sonic environment and be afloat in sound.
In the work of Phil Maguire, compositional energy is focused on the study of timbre of electronic sound: conventional musical concerns such as harmony, melody, or assumptions of the music being explicitly meaningful are not considerations. There are no backgrounds or foregrounds. It is similar to being enveloped by a mist: something you are within, rather than observe from outside.
ā
The installation includes audio material drawn from Phil's forthcoming album on Farpoint Recordings.
ā
The project is supported by the Arts Council / An Chomhairle Ealíon.
. . .
New! The Listening Group - The sonic as a representation of place
Co-curated by sound artists Joseph Young and Anthony Kelly (Farpoint Recordings)
2.00-3.30pm, Sunday 25th February 2024
Mermaid Arts Centre, Bray, County Wicklow
ā
Mermaid Arts Centre’s new sound art Listening Group launches with this inaugural live listen event featuring an exclusive sneak preview of Joseph Young’s forthcoming album Sonic Hauntings in a Big House, drawn from his recent PhD research project The Ancestors. A digital version of the album will be released 4th April on the Farpoint Recordings label with the physical version following later during 2024.
Through exploring the extensive family archive held at Bray’s Killruddery House & Gardens, Young devised both a geolocated soundscape in Killruddery’s grounds and this accompanying record, which further proposes a spectral glimpse of a lost past. In keeping with this investigation of place through audio, the live listen will be followed by discussion led by Joseph and Anthony, interspersed with audio clips from artists who have influenced their practice including Aeron Bergman, Mark Fisher & Justin Barton, Danny McCarthy, The Caretaker, Janet Cardiff, Laurie Anderson, Drew Mullholland, Peter Cusack, Warrington-Runcorn New Town Development Plan, Cathy Lane, Pat Collins & Tadhg O'Sullivan, Chris Watson, Brian Harnetty, Ernest Hood, Dallas Simpson, Graeme Miller, Glenn Gould and Brian Eno.
With thanks to Anne Mullee, Mermaid Arts Centre
Free entry, booking required
The Listening Group will convene every four months with guest curators to be announced.
ā
image from Sonic Hauntings in a big House courtesy of the artist
. . .
ā
Coming Soon! Orpheus Down by Ian Wilson
Orpheus Down consists of ten movements, each relating to a specific part of Orpheus’ journey. The CD features detailed liner notes by Ian Wilson alongside images by photographer Doreen Kennedy and will be released April 10th.
Orpheus Down will receive its premiere concert performances between April 10th and 14th in Ireland this year. Dario Calderone and Gareth Davis will perform at DCU Lunchtime Concert series on 10th, at Cork School of Music on 12th, and at the Sundays at Noon series, Hugh Lane Gallery Dublin, on 14th.
The project is supported by the Arts Council / An Chomhairle Ealíon.
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Recent Release! Earth, Air, Water, Fire: A Poetry Soundscape - an ambitious new double CD
by Paul Kane & Katie O'Looney - available now from the Farpoint Recordings webshop
Paul Kane and Katie O'Looney present their ambitious collaborative double CD of composed soundscapes and poetry on the Farpoint Recordings label. Katie O’Looney’s soundscapes for Earth, Air, Water, Fire: A Poetry Soundscape are environmental in impulse and inspiration. The verse, while ‘philosophically serious’, is also ‘at times, witty and ludic in tone. Earth, Air, Water, Fire is an extended contemplation on not only the elements of our world—both outer and inner - but also on how that world is called into being and then lived most fully and skilfully. Similarly, the paintings of John Wolseley suggest an energetic spontaneity appropriate to a layering improvisation.
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Physical release includes a double CD, 6 panel fold out ecopack with A4 size insert or poster option (let us know which you prefer); a digital version with full artwork pdf is available from the Farpoint Recordings Bandcamp outlet.
CD copies available from the Farpoint Recordings webshop
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Announcing - The return of Strange Attractor
Strange Attractor regroup for a four date tour starting in Berlin and various cities in Poland during November 2023 as part of Anima Mundi 3.
Strange Attractor : Irene Murphy, Mick O’Shea, Danny McCarthy, David Stalling, Anthony Kelly :āØ Tour – Berlin, Szczecin, Gorzów & PoznaÅ. 4 improvised durational performances as part of Anima Mundi 3, 2023 - Venues include Liebig12, Berlin (8.11); Trafo, Szczecin (9.11); Miejski OÅrodek, Gorzów (10.11) and Domie, PoznaÅ (12.11).
More information from venue websites. Supported by Culture Ireland.
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Steve Roden 1964 - 2023
Farpoint Recordings are deeply saddened to hear of the passing of our friend Steve Roden. We have been great admirers of his work and were delighted to collaborate with him during 2011 as part of the ongoing Strange Attractor project. Steve contributed sound and writing to the project and we were thrilled to have him as our guest performer at the Crawford Art Gallery, Cork, Ireland. We became friends over the years and it was our great pleasure to work with Steve developing and releasing the pcahuilcsaigmon album on Farpoint Recordings.
May Steve rest in peace. We offer our heartfelt condolences to his wife Sari, and his family and friends.
Photo by Patricia Klich, left to right - Irene Murphy, David Stalling, Anthony Kelly, Mick O'Shea, Steve Roden, Danny McCarthy; Strange Attractor with Steve Roden, Crawford Art Gallery, Cork 2011.
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New! Adventurous sounds for curious ears - a new limited edition Farpoint Recordings T-Shirt bundled with a free download from the Farpoint Recordings Bandcamp catalogue
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Adventurous sounds for curious ears - a limited edition black T-Shirt with silkscreen design on 100% cotton Gildan soft style shirt. Designed by Doreen Kennedy and silkscreened by our friends at Monotype.
One size (Large) available for now, T-Shirt comes bundled with a randomly selected download from the Farpoint Recordings Bandcamp catalogue - all for just 19 euros!
Get your T-Shirt bundle from the Farpoint Recordings webshop here
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Sonic Vigil XI: In Your Own Time and Place
3 days of improvised music, film, sound art and movement
Cork Opera House & The Guesthouse, Cork, Ireland
14 - 16 September, 2023
Quiet Music Ensemble
Cork Opera House, 14th September, 8pm
Tickets 10 & 7 euros
The Quiet Club + Cathal Roche, Memory Echo (short film by Andrew Deutsch featuring Pauline Oliver’s)
The Guesthouse, 15th September, 6pm
Tickets 10 euro (including food)
Sonic Vigil with guest David Toop
Cork Opera House, 16th September, 12 - 6pm Free Entry
David Toop, The Quiet Club, Cathal Roche, Karen Power, Quiet Music Ensemble, Danny McCarthy, Mick O’Shea, Irene Murphy, John Godfrey, Imna Pavon, Harry Moore, Vicky Langan, Anthony Kelly, David Stalling, Robin Parmar, Tony Langlois, Seán Taylor, Eimaer Reidy, Katie O’Looney, Anne Marie Decay, Claudia Barton, Andy Ingamells, David Bremner, Billy Kemp, Pierre Berthet + Rie Nakajima
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- New Release! - Available now from the Farpoint Recordings webshop -
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Drinking The Stars - an ambitious double CD by John McLachlan
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Mary Dullea plays the solo piano music of John McLachlan on a new double CD entitled Drinking the Stars. Spanning his output from the 1990s to today, it showcases his compositional style and how it evolves over that time. The music ranges across splinteringly direct virtuosity, sinewy counterpoint, rich chordal meditation and much else besides; yet we hear unity in the artistic voice. The interplay of sets of terse miniatures, medium sized meditations, and lengthier immersive pieces gives a layered feeling when listened through as a programme. The selection of pieces includes nearly all of McLachlan’s piano compositions intended for the concert stage (as distinct from his pedagogical works).
Mary Dullea’s superb range of tone and mastery of timing are captured clearly and cleanly by Chris Corrigan’s expert engineering, in recordings made in Belfast and Kilkenny. This CD makes it possible to hear many works that have been heard only in live concerts before, by many pianists, scattered across many countries and years, and it is a great place to get an overview of this composer’s musical landscape.
The CD features detailed liner notes by McLachlan and beautiful images by renowned artist Joanna Kidney.
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Special CD Bundle offer - Drinking The Stars & First
Take advantage of our special CD bundle offer and get Drinking The Stars along with John’s debut album First for only 25 euros. To avail of this offer please select Drinking The Stars + First under 'Bundle Option' in the Farpoint Recordings webshop.
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Prefer Digital? The album is also available as a digital download (with a pdf booklet featuring full liner notes and images) and streaming via Bandcamp.
CD Copies of Drinking The Stars available to purchase here
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- New Release available now in the Farpoint Recordings webshop! -
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According To the Moon by Sarah Album & Gayle Young
CD is now available from Farpoint Recordings & Ars Subtilior
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Canadian artist Gayle Young's unusual and imaginative approach as composer and musician situates her within a long lineage of maverick experimentalists. Though Young's output does not shy away from more conventional modalities as well, since the 1970's she has variously embraced electronics, graphic/text scores, installation, sophisticated tuning systems outside of equal temperament, the sounds of found objects and natural environments, and - perhaps most notably - instruments of her own invention.
According To The Moon sees Young collaborating with Montréal-based vocalist Sarah Albu, one of Canada's most dedicated and curious performers of contemporary and experimental music. The disc follows another release from last year for Farpoint Recordings & Ars Subtilior As Trees Grow, which featured her piano music performed by Xenia Pestova Bennett and Ed Bennett.
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Copies of According To The Moon available to purchase here
For further information on their collaboration, you can read Sarah Albu's article for Musicworks magazine, Gayle Young's Gentle Interventions
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Forthcoming Farpoint Recordings editions for 2023 / 24 includes releases by
John McLachlan, Sarah Albu & Gayle Young, Ensemble 0 (featuring Sylvain Chaveau, Jean-François Brohée & Florent Garnier), Phil Maguire, Joseph Young, Danny McCarthy, Katie O'Looney & Paul Kane, Anthony Kelly & David Stalling, Mick O'Shea, Benjamin Dwyer & Alison Koehler, Harry Moore & Katie O'Looney, Karen Power, Victor Lazzarini.
Drop back soon for more updates!
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Farpoint Recordings wish all our kind supporters seasons greetings and a very happy 2023
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New Release Mixed Circuits by David Bremner - available now!
Rigorous and delicate treatment of four new works... excellently performed and documented... flavours that evoke the machine-like strand in the work of György Ligeti...
Michael Dervan, music critic and Irish Times contributor
David Bremner’s ambitious double CD Mixed Circuits is now available from Farpoint Recordings. Each of the four works on this double-album is a cycle of several short movements or panels, investigating a single impulse: the exploration of a minimal, drone aesthetic through an atonal harmonic fabric of continuous gradual unfolding. Gesture and rhetoric are avoided in favour of a flickering presence, with imperceptible transitions.
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Get your copy priced at 16 euros from the Farpoint Recordings webshop
Mixed Circuits is available in CD and digital formats. The double CD version comes as a limited edition 6 panel fold-out eco pack sleeve and a 36 page booklet with extensive liner notes. It is published as a first edition of 500 copies.
The album is also available as a digital download (with a pdf booklet of the full album artwork featuring images, poems & liner notes) via Bandcamp, Apple Music and Spotify.
Album launch, The Hugh Lane Gallery, Dublin, 12pm on Sunday December 11th, 2022
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Mixed Circuits, David Bremner's portrait album will be launched at the Hugh Lane Gallery, Dublin as part of the Sundays @ Noon series, at 12pm on Sunday December 11th, 2022.
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The launch will consist of concert performances by Andreea Banciu (viola), Elizabeth Hilliard (soprano), Paul Roe (clarinet) and Izumi Kimura (piano) of some of the music from Mixed Circuits. This launch programme presents the world premiere of the most recent work on the album, Possible Vignettes, and an excerpt from Bremner’s 2014 song-cycle Logical Fallacies for soprano and viola on texts by Irish poet Billy Mills.
All are welcome to come along, hope to see some of you there!
Copies of the album are now available in the Farpoint Recordings webshop for just 16 euros
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New Release Amnestic Continuum by Arash Akbari - available now from Farpoint Recordings
Amnestic Continuum is a concept album and a multidisciplinary project that utilises data sonification, data visualisation, and literature to critique the hidden external effects of the increasing hegemony of computation and automation on life on earth.
Copies are now available from the Farpoint Recordings webshop for just 15 euros
Amnestic Continuum is available in CD and digital formats. The CD version comes as a limited edition 32 page book featuring a ten track CD, images by Arash Akbari and poems by Christopher Doherty-Ingram. It is published as a hand-numbered first edition of 300 copies and available from the Farpoint Recordings webshop
Amnestic Continuum is also available as a digital download (with audio & pdf booklet featuring images by Arash Akbari and poems by Christopher Doherty-Ingram) from the Farpoint Recordings Bandcamp page
Watch a short video work for the track No Life Worse Lived in the player above.
The video features ambisonic audio and can be experienced using headphones with or without VR headsets.
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- Coming soon from Farpoint Recordings -
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Mixed Circuits by David Bremner - New double CD and album launch at Hugh Lane Gallery, Dublin
On December 11th, 2022, David Bremner’s double album Mixed Circuits will be released through Farpoint Recordings. The double CD features various chamber music combinations of four stellar performers: Andreea Banciu (viola), Elizabeth Hilliard (soprano), Paul Roe (clarinet) and Izumi Kimura (piano). Included are two song-cycles, with texts by Bremner’s long-standing collaborator Billy Mills, and Rosmarie Waldrop.
The album will be launched at the Hugh Lane Gallery, Dublin as part of the Sundays @ Noon series, at 12pm on Sunday December 11th, 2022. The launch will consist of concert performances of some of the music from the album. All are welcome to come along.
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Out Now - Invisible Resistances by Izumi Kimura & Cora Venus Lunny
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It might not give itself up entirely easily, but the most interesting music rarely does... richly rewarding.
Ian Patterson, All About Jazz
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The empathy between the pair is astounding, and the breadth of the exploration a delight.
Alan O'Riordan, The Irish Examiner
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We are delighted to announce the latest release from Izumi Kimura & Cora Venus Lunny. Invisible Resistances is a new CD of improvised explorations featuring piano by Izumi Kimura and violin & viola by Cora Venus Lunny - nine dazzling improvisations that further push the dialogue between these two performers creating new sonic experiences that are intimate, yet bold and elemental.
Available now for only 14 euros from the Farpoint Recordings webshop
Published in a first edition of 500 copies, the Invisible Resistances CD comes as a full colour 4 panel eco-pack gatefold sleeve and insert sheet featuring photography by Doreen Kennedy and Anthony Kelly. The insert is available in two versions – folded and included inside the CD sleeve, or flat, as a limited edition A4 size poster.
Take advantage of our bundle offers and get the Invisible Resistances CD along with 2021’s critically acclaimed Folding album on CD or Vinyl. Options include Invisible Resistances CD & Folding Vinyl for €30.00 and Invisible Resistances CD & Folding CD for €26.00
You can purchase your bundle offer from the Farpoint Recordings webshop
Invisible Resistances is also available as a download from the Farpoint Recordings Bandcamp page
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You can read Ian Patterson's (All About Jazz) review of Invisible Resistances here
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Out Now! As the quiet crow flies - The Quiet Club + crOw - new expanded edition
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A digital reissue of The Quiet Club + crOw 2016 release As the quiet crow flies, now with a new 24 minute extra track along with redesigned and expanded artwork.
The confluence of one of 2015’s worst storms, a consequently stranded singer and postponed sound-check, and proximity to the home of Mr Roche resulted in the whiling away of an unexpectedly free evening in each other’s good company. Much listening and some making of sounds resulted in As the quiet crow flies.
Quietly...The Quiet Club + crOw reconvened and recorded a session at Library House, Dean Street, Cork on 15th October 2016 in advance of a national tour, now included in this expanded version of the original album. As the quiet crow flies is the result of a collaboration between two of Ireland’s most innovative duos – The Quiet Club (Danny McCarthy & Mick O'Shea) and crOw (Ian Wilson & Cathal Roche).
Digital - Available from the Farpoint Recordings Bandcamp page
Physical - Copies of the original CD version of this album are available from the Farpoint Recordings webshop
CD purchase includes a free download of this expanded digital edition!
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... the quiet and understated music in these grooves ... is a slow and thoughtful exploration of sonic interplays and long tones…the listener can’t help but hear echoes of weather and oceans (and the cries of seagulls) in these abstract sounds. This may indicate that these players, unlike some more recondite EAI players, have not lost sight of some basic truths which help to root their work in the real world, and they’re not afraid to tell stories in their music. This is refreshing; one gets tired of all that non-associative music, which often ends up blank and empty, and As the quiet crow flies is bound to connect to any human being who has travelled overseas, gone for a solitary walk on the hills, or even simply gone outside.
Ed Pinsent, The Sound Projector
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ARTISTS FOR PEACE
Farpoint Recordings
Farpoint Recordings has created a new twenty-four track digital album to help raise humanitarian aid for the people of Ukraine, bringing together artists associated with the Farpoint Recordings label. All proceeds from this unique twenty-four track digital album go to UNICEF and the Irish Red Cross.
Priced at just just 10 euros, the collection is now available
from the Farpoint Recordings Bandcamp page
The album features contributions from leading Irish and international artists including:
Christina Kubisch, The Quiet Club, Danny McCarthy, Mick O’Shea, John McLachlan, Rosa Arrutti aka Nad Spiro, Schirin Nowrousian, Anthony Kelly, David Stalling, Benjamin Dwyer, Karen Power, Harry Moore, Fergus Kelly, Quiet Music Ensemble, John Godfrey, Izumi Kimura, Cora Venus Lunny, Joseph Young, Greystones Orchestra, Ian Wilson, Jennifer Walshe aka Freya Birren, Viv Corringham, Katie O’Looney, Paul Kane, Linda O’Keeffe, David Toop, Strange Attractor, Stephen Vitiello, Doreen Kennedy and Seán McCrum
The audio is accompanied by a specially designed thirty-two page digital booklet containing track-listings, artist information, photography and a short essay about peace by Seán McCrum.
Help support those affected by the conflict in Ukraine by purchasing this unique collection of contemporary sound and music. The album costs just 10 euros from the Farpoint Recordings Bandcamp page
...a wonderful new 24 track digital compilation album from Dublin's Farpoint Recordings
Electronic Sound magazine
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