NAWR ANOIS is a series of 7 concerts, running until July 2018., showcasing the diverse music of contemporary Irish, Welsh and international artists. The series aims to develop deeper connections between Irish and Welsh composers, sound artists and musicians.
The series opened with Mick O’Shea and the next concert is Softday on 28th April.
The concerts are in the historic BBC Building in Swansea Studios at UWTSD. The series features Mick O’Shea, Softday, Vicky Langan, Caoimhín Ó Raghallaigh, Analog On, Rachel Ni Chuinn, and Clang Sayne.
“We are excited to introduce these contemporary Irish music artists to new audiences in Wales, with this intimate concert series,” said Jenn Kirby, co-organiser of NAWR.
Supported by Culture Ireland as part of GB18: Promoting Irish Arts in Britain.
NAWR (meaning NOW in Welsh) is a new multidisciplinary concert series in Swansea consisting of experimental music, free improvisation, film, lo-fi, free jazz, sound art, alternative folk and new music, which is convened by Rhodri Davies, Jenn Kirby, Rose Linn-Pearl and Dan Linn-Pearl and Daryl Feehely.
Rhodri Davies, co-organiser of NAWR, added, “The aim is to offer an open and reflective space for an audience to experience new music in a welcoming and intimate setting.”
Concert Series Dates
Softday 28th Apr
Vicky Langan 17th May
Caoimhín Ó Raghallaigh 7th June
Analog On 21st June
Rachel Ni Chuinn 5th July
Clang Sayne 24th July
Softday – 28th Apr
Since 1999 Softday, the art-science collaboration of artist Sean Taylor and computer scientist Mikael Fernström, have engaged with issues relating to natural cycles in time, climate change and its global effects. Early projects such as Bliain Le Baisteach (A Year of Rainfall) (2000) looked at fluctuating annual rainfall patterns in Ireland. Further, Cóisir an Tsionainn (The Shannon Suite) (2003) focused on the four-year life cycle of the wild Atlantic salmon and the effects of overfishing and pollution on the species ability to survive.
As a collaborative team they use their arts practice to explore relations to and understandings of nature, expressed through sonifications and multimedia artworks and performances. Both artists are interested in exploring the cracks between various media and creative genres such as expanded theatre, sound art, socially engaged practice, sculpture, music, dance and the application of new technologies.
Vicky Langan – 17th May
“There are some musicians who entertain us, fine; some who stimulate us, better; and then some who immerse us in something so powerful that, almost, primal emotions surface instantly; making us ultra-defensive, or, finally open to illumination. One of the latter is Vicky Langan” – -Bernard Clarke, RTÉ Lyric Fm
Vicky Langan is a Cork-based artist whose practice operates across several often overlapping fields, chiefly performance, sound, and film. Langan both embraces and projects vulnerability, offering an intimate territory loaded with personal symbolism and unguarded emotion. With a focus on the sounds of the body and its functions, involving contact-miked skin, amplified breath and live electronic manipulation, Langan’s work sits between sound and performance art. Using simple raw materials such as domestic objects, hair and magnetic tape, she layers physical gestures and scraps of sound to create intensely personal imaginary landscapes. Mundane domesticity is explored as a temporal space where the material body and sensual inner worlds mesh. In opening herself emotionally, she creates warm yet discomforting rituals that at once embrace the viewer and remain resolutely private, exploring the limits of what can be shared between people and what must remain mysterious.
Caoimhín Ó Raghallaigh – 7th June
“the most imaginative and fascinating musician in all of trad” – Earle Hitchner, Irish Echo, USA
Caoimhín Ó Raghallaigh makes music on a 10-string fiddle called the hardanger d’amore, and travels the world as a solo musician, in various duos, and as a member of two bands, The Gloaming and This is How we Fly.
He has performed on some of the most beautiful stages in the world, including the Sydney Opera House, the Royal Albert Hall and the Lincoln Center. He has made ffteen recordings to date, ranging from quite traditional to fairly out there, and continues to explore the
region where traditional music begins to disintegrate.
https://caoimhinoraghallaigh.com/
Analog On – 21st June
“offers wonderfully dusty, quite original retro electronics, but also very timeless glides through the ether” – Babyblaue-Seiten
Analog On is an experimental electronic music ensemble that composes and performs on vintage analogue electronics and modular synthesizers. The group consists of Shauna Caffrey on oscillator, saw and electronics, and Richard Duckworth on modular synthesizer and effects. Analog On has just finished recording their eponymous first release on the iconic Moog System 55 in the Moog Sound Lab at the Tonmeister Studio in Surrey. This was reviewed by Babyblaue-Seiten: “Analog On offers wonderfully dusty, quite original retro electronics, but also very timeless glides through the ether”. The aesthetic is that of the time-warp cultist with retro and future aesthetics co-existing in the same cultural and temporal space – there is more than a passing reference to that glorious era inhabited by Dockstader and Ciani.
https://rmduckworth.wixsite.com/analogon
Rachel Ni Chuinn – 5th July
Rachel Ní Chuinn works with sound, movement, text and electronics. She produces sound works for radio, live performance and installation. Her radio projects include Aerthonnta: Ceolaistir na heitilte – a crossover between musical composition and documentary, The Shape of Sounds to Come – a documentary about architecture and music and Mean Time – a live broadcast of a collaborative concert with 10 sound artists. She has also worked on exhibitions and electronic performance with sculptors Vanya Lambrecht Ward, Gillian Fitzpatrick and Martha Quinn and light artist Renata Pekowska. She is a member of the Dublin Laptop Orchestra, Spatial Music Collective and Gamelan Nua and hosts the weekly music show Cluastuiscint on Raidió na Life. Currently she is producing a radio documentary on the verbatim operetta The Woods & Grandma by Cal Folger Day and working towards releasing an album of improvised clarinet and electronics.
http://www.rachelnichuinn.com/
Clang Sayne – 24th July
“A singular, defiantly independent voice in the lineage of Joni Mitchell, Kate Bush, and Bjork.” – Cormac Larkin, Irish Times
Clang Sayne are an experimental folk quartet (4 voices, guitar, bass clarinet, cello, drums) directed by Laura Hyland, and exploring the boundary between song and sound improvisation. Their music has been described as “exhilarating in its refusal to conform” (The Wire Magazine), and “showing an uncategorisable approach to song craft” (Boomkat). They released their 2nd album, ‘The Round Soul of the World’ in Spring 2017, a track from which appeared on the April 2017 edition of the Wire’s Tapper cd series. You can hear the album in full here: https://soundcloud.com/clangsayne/sets/the-round-soul-of-the-world-1