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The Cabinet of Dr Caligari
February 26th 2020. St. Ann's Church, Dublin.
Special centenary screening presented with new score by: Adrian Crowley (melotron), Seán Mac Erlaine (wurlitzer, electronics), Matthew Nolan (guitars), Barry Adamson (bass: Magazine / Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds), Neil O’Connor (live processing)
James Joyce's Pomes Penyeach with Lisa Hannigan & Guests
St. Patrick's Festival | March 16th 2020. National Concert Hall, Dublin.
St Patrick’s Festival 2020 presents a world premiere of poetry, music and song featuring the poetry of James Joyce interpreted by Matthew Nolan and Adrian Crowley in collaboration with Lisa Hannigan. Featuring: Lisa Hannigan (vocals), Matthew Nolan (guitar), Adrian Crowley (piano & mellotron), Sean Mac Erlaine (reeds & electronics), Cora Venus Lunny (violin & viola) and Cheyenne Mize (violin).
This is How we Fly featuring Iarla Ó Lionáird
St. Patrick's Festival | March 15th 2020. Liberty Hall, Dublin.
A new commission from Solstice Arts Centre as part of the This is How we Fly's residency. Part traditional music, part contemporary composition, part dance, This is How we Fly has always defied genre and category. To mark their ten-year anniversary in 2020, the acclaimed contemporary folk group collaborate with the celebrated Irish singer Iarla Ó Lionáird. St. Patrick’s Festival is proud to present the world premiere of this ambitious commission from Solstice Arts Centre, Navan, which weaves an imaginative song cycle around Co. Meath’s long literary tradition echoing Ireland’s ancient literary history as well as looking to contemporary sources.
Pauline Oliveros: The Mystery Beyond Matter
March 19th, 2020. Quiet Music Ensemble performance of Oliveros commissioned piece The Mystery Beyond Matter in Centro de Creación Contemporánea de Andalucía Cordoba launching their Pauline Oliveros Retrospective.
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Dracula: Live Soundtrack
Visiting Kilkenny Arts Festival (August 2019) and Westival Westport Music + Arts Festival (October 2019). The iconic version of Bram Stoker’s classic tale, screened with a new score written and performed live by Eivind Aarset (guitars), Sharon Phelan (vocals, electronics), Seán Mac Erlaine (prepared piano, chalumeau, vocals) and Matthew Nolan (guitar, electronics).
Boyne Song
New audio visual collaboration between film maker Moira Sweeney and Seán Mac Erlaine (Wurlitzer, tuned metals, clarinets). As part of the exhibition "I send my love along the Boyne" curated by Linda Shevlin. A Solstice Arts Centre commission.
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Terra Firmish: St Patrick's Festival 2019
Terra Firmish is a new musical work commissioned by St Patrick’s Festival, written by Seán Mac Erlaine for dance, harp, clarinet, marimba, percussion, and electronics. The piece is inspired by the history of Teampall Caomhán, a tenth century church on Inis Oírr. For hundreds of years this small church was continuously excavated by its community as it sank deeper into the sandy island. Terra Firmish is a poetic interpretation of this story drawing on the contemporary dance of Emma O’Kane and visual design of Michelle Browne.
Dance • Emma O’Kane
Harp • Maeve Gilchrist
Woodwinds, electronics • Seán Mac Erlaine
Marimba, percussion • Alex Petcu
Illegal: Live Soundtrack
Commissioned by Mother Tongues Festival, a new live accompaniment to the award-winning graphic novel by Eoin Colfer, Andrew Donkin, and artist Giovanni Rigano. For fans of the book and new audiences alike, Mac Erlaine’s score brings another imaginative dimension to this work. Performed by Matthew Nolan (electric guitar, effects), Mary Barnecutt (cello, vocals), Seán Mac Erlaine (vocals, guitar, electronics).
This is How we Fly: Live at The Barbican
November tour takes in UCC, Cork; The Model, Sligo; The Black Gate, Galway; Connolly's of Leap, Co. Cork; Riverbank Arts Centre, Newbridge; The Pavilion, Dún Laoghaire; Solstice Arts Centre, Navan; The Barbican, London; Coughlans, Cork; National Concert Hall, Dublin. New album recording starts Winter 2019.
John Kelly's Mystery Train
Seán was special guest on John Kelly's Mystery Train radio show where he chats and picks all the tunes from Al Green to Bill Calahan to Gillian Welsch.
NYsferatu: Symphony of a Century
Bram Stoker Festival, St. Ann’s Church, Dawson St, Dublin | October 26th
The Irish premiere of the stunning NYsferatu: Symphony of a Century, directed by Andrea Mastrovito, an animated interpretation of the classic 1922 horror film Nosferatu.
Set in present day New York City, NYsferatu, a rotoscoped film, comprised of 35,000 hand-drawn images, replicates the eerie, flickering shutter effect of early cinema and will be accompanied by a specially commissioned live score by internationally renowned composer Matthew Nolan (Ireland), with similarly celebrated international musicians Erik Friedlander (U.S.A), Seán Mac Erlaine (Ireland) and Jan Bang (Norway) at St. Anne’s Church, Dawson St, where Bram Stoker married Florence Balcombe in 1878.
Music for Empty Ears
Critical praise for Seán's new release
"Empty Ears is a seductive listen with a distinctive voice all its own." ~ The Wire
"The rich-textured woodwind sound of Seán Mac Erlaine scintillates … and damn near coins a new musical language." ~ Electronic Sound
"His music is truly unique, creating a world of wonders, surprises, haunted melodies and melancholic impressions. This album is a gem." ~ The Whole Note
"Music for Empty Ears glows as if lit from within. There is a tenderness and authenticity to the sound that is riveting ... scanning the spreading horizons of music but rooted in something ancient." ~ Cormac Larkin, The Irish Times.
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The Four Horsemen of The Apocolypse
New York Film Festival, Lincoln Center, NYC
Live score written and performed by Matthew Nolan (electric guitar/electronics), Seán Mac Erlaine (reeds/electronics/vocal), Adrian Crowley (Mellotron/vocal), Kevin Murphy (cello/vocal), and Barry Adamson (bass guitar/percussion/synths/vocal).
One of cinema’s greatest antiwar films, a devastating epic centered around a divided Argentine family fighting on opposite sides during World War I. Directed by Rex Ingram, 1921.
The score was commissioned by and premiered at the St. Patrick’s Festival Dublin in March 2018. Supported by Culture Ireland. Special 35mm print courtesy of Martin Scorsese.
Creating Gods
Niguliste Kirik, Tallinn, Estonia
ARVO PÄRT DAYS 2018
Paul Curley – actor, vocalist
Seán Mac Erlaine – clarinet, electronics, vocalist
Mingo Rajandi – double bass, kannel (Estonian zither)
Ahto Abner – vibraphone, percussion
“Creating Gods” is an interdisciplinary stage piece based on the iconic Portugese poet and thinker Fernando Pessoa's texts and Mingo Rajandi's music.
The Melting Song // Video directed by Laura Sheeran
Second single from new album Music for Empty Ears | Available worldwide now
"The rich-textured woodwind sound of Irish visionary Seán Mac Erlaine scintillates here...and damn near coins a new musical language." - Electronic Sound Magazine
"A set of lavish tonal pieces, honed to luxuriate in their ensemble sound rather than individual display. Through a hall of mirrors, a search is on for beauty… Music for Empty Ears is a seductive listen, with a distinctive voice all its own." - The Wire
"A sonic story that will play with your perceptions of time and space, and make your ears beat with pleasure." - The Whole Note
Buy the album
Seán Mac Erlaine · Music for Empty Ears
April 6th: Project Arts Centre, Dublin
April 7th: Triskel Christchurch, Cork
May 19th: Union Chapel, London
May 2018 sees the release of Seán Mac Erlaine’s third album Music for Empty Ears on the Ergodos label. Following the critical acclaim of his first two solo records Seán is working with two of the leading lights in contemporary music, broadening his soundworld and embracing a collaborative approach. Norwegian musicians Eivind Aarset on guitars and effects, and live sampling pioneer Jan Bang bring an expansive, detailed palette to this work recorded in Oslo.
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The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse
Screening & Live Score Performance
15th March 2018: St Patrick's Festival, Dublin.
18th March 2018: Home, Manchester.
9th October 2018: New York Film Festival
A new collaboration with internationally renowned composers Matthew Nolan and Barry Adamson (Magazine, Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds), musician and composer Seán Mac Erlaine, songwriter and composer Adrian Crowley, and cellist Kevin Murphy.
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This is How we Fly release Foreign Fields
Second album now available on Vinyl, CD, digital formats
Live dates announced at Sirius Arts Centre; Another Love Story; Sounds From A Safe Harbour; National Sawdust, New York City; Klaverfabrikken, Denmark; Templebar Trad Fest.
"This is music that effortlessly spans the worlds of traditional, contemporary, jazz and electronica, drawing listeners into its soundscape with a welcoming embrace. And even when This Is How We Fly veer into deep musical space, they lure the listener with them – at times by stealth, but never under duress." ★★★★ - The Irish Times
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Bottlenote presents The Walls Have Ears
Cairde Festival Sligo | July 14th & 15th
A magical, site-specific experiential evening of new and improvised music featuring Phil Minton, Jennifer Walshe, Shane Latimer, Seán Mac Erlaine and Claudia Schwab. The Sligo event took place in ‘Breda Murphy’s House’, No. 2 John Street. Audiences are led from one room to another to experience a series of quiet improvisations, explosive sets and moments of magic.
Waywords and Meansigns
Finnegans Wake collaboratively set to music
New releases as part of a gathering of over 100 musicians and readers from 15 different countries to set James Joyce's Finnegans Wake to music. Seán Mac Erlaine: composition, producer, and bass clarinet; Dorothy Murphy: vocals, leader; Sue Rynhart: vocals; Georgia Cusack: vocals; Tuula Voutilainen: vocals.
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A Page of Madness
New live soundtrack
St. Patrick's Festival | March 16th, Trinity College Chapel
A rare opportunity to see arguably the most important Asian film from the silent era. The presentation will be accompanied by a new score produced by acclaimed Irish musicians and composers Matthew Nolan and Seán Mac Erlaine in collaboration with London based shakuhachi master, Clive Bell. A Page of Madness (1926) or Kurutta Ippeiji is a silent film by Japanese film director Kinugasa Teinosuke. It was lost for fifty years until being rediscovered in a shed in 1971. Teinosuke Kinugasa was the first director in Japan to realise his ambition of treating cinema as a distinct art form in its own right, divorced from the commercial concerns of the new mass-audience medium.
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Chair upon Wood upon Stone
New work for cello and live electronics
Spike Dublin Alternative Cello Festival | February 12th, Hugh Lane Gallery
New commission in association with Improvised Music Company for Spike Dublin Alternative Cello Festival. Chair upon Wood upon Stone is a piece for cellist Kate Ellis and live electronics.
Duo Series #5
Seán Mac Erlaine with Jan Bang
Friday 25th November | The Fumbally Stables, Dublin 8
The series concludes with Jan Bang. The musical spheres Jan Bang works in revolve around such luminaries as Jon Hassell, David Sylvian, Brian Eno, Sidsel Endresen, Nils Petter Molvær and Arve Henriksen. From his work as successful pop producer in the 1990s, his creative thrust and pioneering work in developing the concept of live remix - improvising with electronics alongside more conventional instruments and performers - has led to him being constantly in-demand as a producer and performer today.
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The Cap and Bells
Hopner House, Tallinn, Estonia | 3rd November
Major new commission setting poetry of Yeats for 10 piece Estonian new music Ensemble Avarus. On the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the 1916 Easter Rising in Ireland, a group of Estonian artists have decided to center their creative efforts around Irish culture this year. Over the time of the project, Irish, Colombian, and Finnish artists have joined up. Their work has produced seven new pieces of music so far, as well as a short film of music and dance by director Carlos Lesmes.
InformationDracula Live // Bram Stoker Festival
Saturday 29th October | The National Concert Hall, Dublin
Dracula Live presents the iconic version of Bram Stoker’s classic tale, screened with a new score written and performed live by Seán Mac Erlaine (Ire), Matthew Nolan (Ire), Eivind Aarset (Nor) and Sharon Phelan (Ire). In this 1931 original, Bela Lugosi stars as the screen’s most enduring vampire Count Dracula, with horror specialist Director Tod Browning creating the film’s eerie and chilling mood.
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Duo Series #4
Seán Mac Erlaine with Valgeir Sigurðsson
Friday 14th October | The Fumbally Stables, Dublin 8
Valgeir is the founder of Greenhouse Studios, Iceland’s top recording facility established in 1997, where in addition to Björk, he has collaborated with artists such as Bonnie 'Prince' Billy, Feist, Damon Albarn, Camille, CocoRosie, Ben Frost, Sam Amidon, múm, Hilary Hahn & Hauschka, Brian Eno, Sigur Rós and many others.
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This is How we Fly play The Spiegeltent at Dublin Tiger Fringe Festival
September 18th | Merrion Square, Dublin | 7pm
As part of the Tiger Dublin Fringe Festival This is How we Fly will perform their largest Dublin concert to date at the Spiegeltent, Merrion Square. The group will take to the beautiful Speigeltent stage for their last Dublin city performance before they record the follow-up to their acclaimed debut album.
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Bottlenote presents BLEED at Dublin Tiger Fringe Festival
September 21st - 25th | 13 North Great George's Street, Dublin 1 19:30 & 21:15 | €15/13
BLEED animates an abandoned Georgian house, creating a reverberating, pulsing space. The audience is led from room to room each occupied by a musician, guided by light design which highlights the patina and atmosphere of the house. A live collaborative tape piece is used, a technique of recording each performance and replaying that recording throughout the house as the next performance is occurring. With ten performances this creates an increasingly rich, layered ambiance where past decisions inform subsequent ones, with each musician adding to the composition over five days turning the entire four storey house into a huge instrument.
Barry Guy (double bass)
Shane Latimer (guitars, electronics)
Laura Hyland (guitar, voice)
Seán Mac Erlaine (woodwinds, electronics)
Justin Carroll (keyboards)
Ailbhe Nic Oireachtaigh (viola)
Roy Carroll (sound design)
Tobias Delius (tenor saxophone)
Steve Davis (drum kit)
Gavin Prior (guitars, electronics).
Quiet Music Ensemble headline Deep Minimalism Festival, London
June 25th | Southbank Centre, St John’s Smith Square | 8pm
Performing Pauline Oliveros’ The Mystery Beyond Matter and Jennifer Walshe’s Dordán in the new UK festival, Deep Minimalism, run by South Bank Centre. In the central slot of the 3-day event, 8 pm on June 25th, the performance will take place in one of London’s most prestigious venues, St. John’s Smiths Square. In the company of Oliveros and Walshe themselves, QME will join musicians and composers from all over the world in a celebration of “music that takes its time”.
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Duo Series #2:
Seán Mac Erlaine and Unni Løvlid
Friday May 27th | Christchurch Cathedral, Dublin | 8:30pm | €18
A cycle of unique dialogues between one of Ireland’s most innovative and progressive musicians with similarly minded musicians from the European contemporary music scene. Norwegian folk singer Unni 'Løvlid’s voice is pure and direct, completely at ease with all the changing moods.' - Fiona Talkington / BBC.
Tickets
Quiet Music Ensemble at Festiwal Poznańska Wiosna Muzyczna
March 15th. Our Polish debut! Performing work by David Toop, Martin Iddon, Maciej Jabłoński, John Godfrey and Jennifer Walshe.
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Music To Lean On | Fractured Air Mix
Ahead of a number of performances at Sounds From A Safe Harbour Festival curated by Bryce Dessner. Tracks from Vinicio Capossela, Jon Balke, Bob Dylan, Romica Puceanu, Paul Burch and others. "These are musicians I feel I can trust, to lean on, to deliver the goods when you might need them. I hope some other listeners find some of the same things here as I do."
- Seán Mac Erlaine, September 2015.
The Walls Have Ears | Dublin Fringe Festival
09-11 September 2015 | Showtimes 19:30 & 21:15
A site-specific promenade of improvised music in the atmospheric surrounds of a gloriously dilapidated Georgian residence. The audience, led from room to room experiences quiet improvisations, explosive sets and moments of magic from leading improvising musicians.
A leading figure of European improvised music and film scores, Dutch cellist Ernst Reijseger (Werner Herzog, Winter & Winter) is joined by acclaimed Irish musicians including Seán Carpio (guitar, electronics), Shane Latimer (guitars, electronics), Seán Mac Erlaine (clarinets, processing), and Justin Carroll (keyboards). Prebooking only.
New Video
All Sung A Slender Song
The Iraqi landscape as seen through 1950s surveillance footage from the CIA. Repurposed and reedited for a track from Seán's second solo record 'A Slender Song'.
About the music...
Interview with Fractured Air
“I started playing live solo shows around 2006/2007 but in 2010 my approach and tools changed fairly radically as I packed up my dozens of hardware pedals and acres of cables (it just got too heavy for the bicycle!) and started developing and using customised software and a computer alongside my woodwinds.”
Read it Here
A Slender Song
New solo release | Available Now
Limited edition pressing on orange vinyl released by Ergodos Records. The end of year polls are saying: "An utterly original sonic space. ★★★★" ~ The Irish Times. Donal Dineen's Top three releases of 2014. Sixth on Nialler9's top 25 Irish albums of 2014. Now available in Tower Records, Dublin; Plugd Records, Cork; Harold Moores Records, London and online from Ergodos
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Pulse Music / Ceol Cuisle
Radio homage to poet Micheal Hartnett
A sonic journey into the thoughts and poetic imagination of the late West Limerick poet Michael Hartnett. Directed and researched by Dylan Tighe. Original music and sound design by Seán Mac Erlaine. Featuring the actor Andrew Bennett and singers Nell Ní Chróinín and Iarla Ó Lionáird.
Listen Back / Free Download
Quiet Music Ensemble premiere Pauline Oliveros' Mystery Beyond Matter
Sunday 27th April | Nova, Lyric FM live broadcast with studio audience | 8pm
Commissioned by Quiet Music Ensemble with funds made available by the Arts Council of Ireland, The Mystery Beyond Matter is a major new work from one of the world’s most influential composers and performers, an independent and pioneering spirit who has been at the cutting edge of musical and technical innovation for many decades. The composition is for improvising musicians and sound engineer, live electronics, multi channel audio and unusual venues including radio and internet.
Amhrán na Leabhar | Long After The Music Is Gone
Traditional Irish. Arrangement, clarinets, electronics by Seán Mac Erlaine. Camera work & film by Donal Dineen. Available from Ergodos Records on vinyl, CD and digital formats - www.longafterthemusicisgone.com
