Quietwild

I had walked that path many hundreds of times before and through all of the seasons, which express themselves more fiercely there than they do in Belfast. It was late summer then, a day with a warm sun that would sprawl in the heat for hours before sinking into the ocean not long before midnight […]

quietwild

It was late in October of the previous year when I pulled into the carpark of the forest, a couple of miles past the last village, opposite the abandoned farmhouse. The ruins of the old manor were clawing over the hill and I could hear the low, sloshing wash of the sea as I stepped […]

weavers

January 2017 saw the release of Siren, the wonderful debut EP from weavers, an on-going project of the singer Dónal Kearney on which I collaborated. The project aims to weave together the various influences that have shaped Dónal’s music over the years, threading folk music around soulful harmonies and electronic beats. At the centre of […]

Burial at Sea

During 2016, artists across Ireland presented work that sought to commemorate the Easter Rising and the changes that a century has brought to the nation. As part of an Irish Composers’ Collective concert held in November 2016, I curated a concert entitled Speaking with the Past,  which aimed at creating ambitious and challenging new works for mezzo […]

Threads and Traces

Threads and Traces is a work for solo viola and ensemble that explores the space between notes and the traces they leave behind. It was premiered by Sebastian Adams and the Kirkos Ensemble during the annual Irish Composers’ Collective Takeover concert on 13th November 2015. The first movement, Chorale, features a slow and meditative viola […]

Casement opera

With support from the Arts Council of Ireland, I will be spending 2015 developing and writing the libretto and score for a brand new opera based on the life of Irish revolutionary Roger Casement. A deeply contentious figure in Irish history, Casement will make a fascinating subject for a dark and probing opera. For some […]