fantastic process-orientated work - gettin a real steampunk vibe - riveting stuff!

Free Cells Drinking The Medium 

Recorded in concert at the Royal Irish Academy of Music, Dublin, July 2016.

Electric Guitar – Barry O'Halpin 
Bass Flute – Lina Andonovska
Viola – Sebastian Adams

This piece is a response to an eerily captivating piece of interference microscopy footage from 1958 that I came across by chance in the Wellcome Collection. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R5Ekhhhj_WI

On surface level, the film is a very clinical document of normal and cancerous cells. However, the longer I looked at these alien shapes floating in a blue void, the more abstract and visually captivating the images became, like a moving painting with distinct edges blurred by the warmth of grainy film. The rich colour palette of the footage and its fluttering, pulsating, sometimes jarring movements are sonically reflected in the piece’s microtonal harmony, rhythmic fluidity and blurred instrumental identity. As the name–taken from a title card in the film–alludes, I visualise the often fleeting, unstable musical material that jumps between the players as emerging and retreating into in its own dark liquid medium.

Free Cells Drinking The Medium (Live Excerpt)

507 Mechanical Movements

Redacted [piano solo]

oct-dec ’17
written for Plus-Minus
ded. to Bryn Harrison, Amber Priestley, Sergei Zagny, Laurence Crane;
Matthew Shlomowitz & Plus-Minus

studio recording
Irine Røsnes (vln), Colin Frank (pc), me (kbd/guitar)

1. 0:00   2. 2:21   3. 7:41   4. 16:28

fp was given by Mark Knoop, Tom Pauwels, Serge Vuille & Kasia Ziminska @ City University

art (clockwise from top left): Joseph Albers — Study for Homage to the Square, 1967; Homage to the Square: SP–IV, 1967; Untitled (from Homage au Carré portfolio), 1965; Homage to the Square: Starting, 1968.

Set of four

carlos aguilar - bass flute
ross wightman - contrabass

qumran ii. rentier | for bass flute and contrabass (2018)

Short excerpt from 'the traces that remain', performed by members of the LSO at LSO St Luke's July 2018.

for 3 Gramophones, Stroh Violin, Stroh Cello, Bass Clarinet, Percussion, Sine Waves

for video of full piece please see:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QQcX3aU0Pxs

the traces that remain LSO (Excerpt- full vid below)

'drones... wilderness' A series of drones for ensemble and electronics interspersed with field recordings exploring the concept of wilderness. Originally formed part of a live soundtrack for an experimental Western by Maximillian Le Cain and Vicky Langan. Recorded by the Kirkos Ensemble in Dublin, 2017.

drones, wilderness

performed by the brilliant Amatis Trio.

Thank you to RTÉ Lyric FM for the recording!

Gone to Earth (for piano trio)

Barry O’ Halpin is a Dublin-based composer, member of Alarmist and electric guitarist with Crash Ensemble. 

In 2018-20 he was Arts & Humanities Artist in Residence at Parity Studios, University College Dublin, as well as Composer-In-Residence with Crash Ensemble, composing several works for solo guitar & small and large ensembles.

Written for diverse ensembles, his compositions frequently draw inspiration from the sounds and patterns of natural phenomena, weaving musical materials from animal choruses, electromagnetic spectra and the imagery of microbiology.  

His highly textural music is shot through with a crawling, organic energy, often preoccupied with unfamiliar microtonal sonorities, fluctuating rhythms, and liminal timbres.  He frequently explores new uses of the electric guitar alongside classical instrumentation, employing invented tunings and unorthodox techniques to create a sound-world less familiar than the sum of its parts.

His piece Lipids was written for and performed by Crash Ensemble in their 2015-16 Born in the 80s tour, and featured in their 2016 Composing the Island Music Marathon at the NCH.  In 2015, Toric for string orchestra was commissioned and performed by Fishamble Sinfonia & guest director Darragh Morgan, and earlier that year his Miniature for piano was performed by Raymond Deane in the Kevin Barry Room. NCH. Both as composer and guitarist, he has worked closely with Crash, Kirkos & Bastard Assignments, and curated the latter's 2014 Dublin show. 

As a member of Crash, he has premiered works by composers such as Tansy Davies, Ann Cleare, David Lang & Michael Gordon and performed at festivals Musica Nova (Finland)and Gaida (Lithuania).

He was Guitar Fellow at Bang On A Can’s 2017 Summer Music Festival in the Massachussetts, USA, as well as their November 2016 Villa Musica residency in Germany.

He is a composer and performer with experimental rock band Alarmist, whose 2015 LP Popular Demain, along with two previous EPs, have gained them an international following. Alarmist have gained acclaim for their live shows, with tours in the UK, Europe & Canada, including festivals Ottawa Jazz, Arctangent (UK), 12 Points (SWE/IR) and Match & Fuse (FR/UK). Media coverage has included BBC Radio, WNYC/NPR, All About Jazz, The Guardian and Nialler9.

He is currently a PhD candidate at Queen’s University Belfast with Simon Mawhinney. In 2013 he obtained an MMus (Distinction) in Composition at Trinity Laban Conservatoire, London under Gwyn Pritchard & Paul Newland, 
In 2010 he was awarded the Geoffrey Singleton prize for his composition portfolio upon graduation from Music in Trinity College Dublin, where he studied with composers Donnacha Dennehy and Sean Reed.


(photo by Sophie Murphy)

Free Cells Drinking The Medium (Live Excerpt)

Barry O'Halpin

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