Whoa I don't know what I just listened to but I like it :D

Sam Gellaitry - Nebula

Dealt a Hand by Niamh O’Donnell (Tŷ Cerdd commission)
Premiered at NightMusic, St David's Hall, 5 April 2022
Performed by Anne Denholm (harp), Héloïse Werner (soprano)
Recorded in Tŷ Cerdd studios, engineered and produced by Matt Collins

Niamh O'Donnell - Dealt A Hand (Anne Denholm, Héloïse Werner)

Created as part of Vicky Clarke & Brighter Sound's Machine Learning and Music Residency, Manchester UK 06/05/22 - 10/05/22.

‘Hybridised_Naturally’ is a futuristic audio-visual projection of if two opposing worlds collided. Travelling through vertical spaces within the Earth, the natural blends with the industrial. The sonic material is generated by machine learning algorithms, utilising PRiSM’s SampleRNN, WORD2WAVE, Holly Herndon’s Holly+, and a dataset made up of the raw sounds of machinery, city soundscapes, nature soundscapes and animals that are also heard in the piece. The visuals are a blend of different videos using Pollinations’ VQGAN+Clip network with various nature- and industry-based text prompts in the style of Rene Magritte, Salvador Dali, L.S. Lowry, and Ernst Haeckel.

After creating a twenty-minute dataset, I trained the SampleRNN network on different lengths and variations of this audio file which generated mainly noise but each with their own hidden gestures and unique qualities. I adopted and preserved these unique sonic behaviours inherent to the generated samples and used them to shape and mould the gestures and texture motions heard throughout the piece. These inherent behaviours then supported the overall structure of the piece, allowing it to naturally form as one gradually moving texture injected with percussive and abrupt gestures.
In addition to the noise samples generated by SampleRNN, I utilised Ilaria Manco’s text-to-audio WORD2WAVE network which produced percussive and bass-heavy samples. These samples formed most of the low frequency content of the piece, supporting the composed imagined space below the ground. As a contrast to this, I utilised Holly Herndon’s Holly+ samples generated from harmonic synth pads to create a tonal, humanistic element to situate the piece within a futuristic society filled with energy. 
The visuals were generated using a VQGAN+Clip network via Pollinations.ai in the style of different artists and then blended to follow the movement and gestures of the audio.

The full audio-visual work can be seen along with my fellow Dreaming with Machines artists here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3HuP5z3xVaU&ab_channel=BrighterSound

Hybridised_Naturally [Audio] (2022)

See the Sky is much more abstract and is all about hope. This piece has a much more contemporary quality to it, with much of the harmony steeped in chromaticism. It starts in the lower registers of the piano, symbolising the weight of despair and despondency. However as the piece continues, gradually the spirits are raised as ‘hope’ comes into play, travelling up into the middle register of the piano. As the sky comes into view and belief is restored a little, the piece shimmers into the higher register of the piano, leaving the listener high above the clouds.

Listen on Spotify here: https://open.spotify.com/album/5LJ6AvLRQ6lSO9gLRLQRwX?si=FgxcdrR4T96uASkAnFRKdg

See The Sky

A short theme I composed, experimenting with instrumentation.

Short theme #1

Performed by the BBC National Orchestra of Wales for Composition Wales 2023.

Five Windows - BBC National Orchestra of Wales

Still Pond

Sandpiper

Composers' Studio was a pathway that gave six early-career composers - Eluned Davies, Jake Thorpe, Joseph Graydon, Luciano Williamson, Niamh O'Donnell & Tayla-Leigh Payne - the opportunity and support to write a 5-minute piece for conducted ensemble of 12 players.

Programme Note
This piece is inspired by the history of my village. It was home to a mine which started in 1720, and which was then abandoned by the conman who started it. Now it’s left to decay, with the land above falling into it, endangering the forest that has grown since, and exposing the old mine to the world above.

The trio at the start represents a time before the mine, when nature flourished, and as we progress the music becomes more menacing and concerning, indicating the creation of the mine and the destruction of the land. After this climactic downfall, we hear the stale waltz, representing what was left by the miners, such as hollowed out halls and metallic structures ready to rust. After this we fade into an echo of the past, decorated by small harmonic gestures. 


https://www.tycerdd.org/composers-studio

When The Earth Opens - Niamh O'Donnell

III- Radiant
Performed by Kristina Blaumane - solo
Lithuanian Chamber Orchestra; cond. Maxim Rysanov

Gelignite

Daniel Soley

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