Maya Homburger (Baroque violin)
Barry Guy (double bass)

From 'Star' (ER3), available from http://ergodos.ie/shop/star

Petryfyde Floures – Simon O'Connor

'Ich Ruf Zu Dir, Herr Jesu Christ' by Simon O'Connor

This track is taken from 'I Call to You', a record of music inspired by music by Baroque master Johann Sebastian Bach, and performed by the Dublin-based group Ergodos Musicians.

'I Call to You' is released on Ergodos Records.

For more info, and to purchase the album, click here: www.ergodos.ie/shop/i-call-to-you/


Ich Ruf Zu Dir, Herr Jesu Christ / Simon O'Connor / Ergodos Musicians

'Vedrò Con Mio Diletto', an opera aria by Antonio Vivaldi (1724), arranged by Garrett Sholdice.

Ergodos Musicians

Michelle O’Rourke – voice
Seán Mac Erlaine – saxophone
Kate Ellis – cello

Taken from the Ergodos Musicians release, 'Songs'. 

For the 'Songs' project, composers Garrett Sholdice and Benedict Schlepper-Connolly have arranged, re-composed, weaved and stitched material drawn from the songs they love. 

Working closely with vocalist Michelle O’Rourke, reed player Seán Mac Erlaine and cellist Kate Ellis, they celebrate the way a melody or a lyric can live in memory, heart and limb— turning, dissolving and re-forming, but never vanishing. 

Experiences become transformed and transfigured, while other perspectives and insights come in the form of deeply reflective improvisations. 

https://ergodos.ie/shop/songs/

Vedrò Con Mio Diletto (1724) / Antonio Vivaldi / arranged by Garrett Sholdice

'I am Weary of Lying Alone', a traditional song, arranged by Benedict Schlepper-Connolly. 

Ergodos Musicians

Michelle O’Rourke – voice
Seán Mac Erlaine – saxophone
Benedict Schlepper-Connolly – electric guitar

Taken from the Ergodos Musicians release, 'Songs'.

For the 'Songs' project, composers Garrett Sholdice and Benedict Schlepper-Connolly have arranged, re-composed, weaved and stitched material drawn from the songs they love.

Working closely with vocalist Michelle O’Rourke, reed player Seán Mac Erlaine and cellist Kate Ellis, they celebrate the way a melody or a lyric can live in memory, heart and limb— turning, dissolving and re-forming, but never vanishing.

Experiences become transformed and transfigured, while other perspectives and insights come in the form of deeply reflective improvisations.

https://ergodos.ie/shop/songs/

I Am Weary Of Lying Alone / Trad. / arranged by Benedict Schlepper-Connolly

An improvisation by Ergodos Musicians:

Michelle O’Rourke – voice
Seán Mac Erlaine – saxophone
Kate Ellis – cello

Taken from the Ergodos Musicians release, 'Songs'.

For the 'Songs' project, composers Garrett Sholdice and Benedict Schlepper-Connolly have arranged, re-composed, weaved and stitched material drawn from the songs they love.

Working closely with vocalist Michelle O’Rourke, reed player Seán Mac Erlaine and cellist Kate Ellis, they celebrate the way a melody or a lyric can live in memory, heart and limb— turning, dissolving and re-forming, but never vanishing.

Experiences become transformed and transfigured, while other perspectives and insights come in the form of deeply reflective improvisations.

https://ergodos.ie/shop/songs/


This World (improvisation)

'Metallurgy' is the final track from 'What Was', the debut album devoted entirely to the music of Irish composer Judith RIng. 

Beau Stocker, percussion, Judith ring, objects

Judith Ring gets in a room with her musician and she starts recording. There are no pre-conceived ideas, no strategies. A feedback loop is set in motion: a sound is created, a change is suggested — ‘higher‘, ‘harsher’, ‘more pressure’, ‘lighter’, ‘darker’ — and more sounds come to life. Raw material is generated from actions, not plans.

What was documents the sensuous, rich and dark results of a painterly, highly personal approach to composition; it is the first album of music devoted solely to the last decade of one of Ireland’s most important composers.

The life-blood of these compositions is material arising from the musicians themselves – some of the finest exponents of new Irish music, including Paul Roe, Kate Ellis, Malachy Robinson, Michelle O'Rourke, Natasha Lohan and Concorde, as well as genre-crossing perfumers such as Laura Moody and Beau Stocker.

Ring’s work is first and foremost with the pulse in the arm that glides the bow over the string. She does not begin with a highly abstract, one-dimensional idea of that sound in notation. Her process can be described as truly experimental, in the sense of Charles Ives: open, aware, conscious, hopeful.

ergodos.ie/shop/what-was

Metallurgy / Judith Ring

The new solo album from woodwind instrumentalist and composer Seán Mac Erlaine, now available on limited edition, transparent orange vinyl.
http://ergodos.ie/shop/a-slender-song

Seán Mac Erlaine — Dingle

The first part of an organum on the plainchant 'Viderunt Omnes' by medieval Parisian composer Léonin. 

Michelle O’Rourke – voices

Taken from the Ergodos Musicians release, 'All the ends of the earth'. (https://ergodos.ie/shop/all-the-ends-of-the-earth/)

'All the ends of the earth' reaches across nine centuries to connect three contemporary Irish voices with the music of a mediæval master. Present-day Dublin and 12th-century Notre Dame Cathedral have never seemed closer in this, the latest time-shrinking project by the visionary Ergodos Musicians.

Music by a French mediæval master, known simply as Léonin, forms the focus of this record. Léonin time-stretches a plainchant tune, Viderunt omnes, and places beautiful lyrical counter-melodies on top of it; this music seems even more transcendent as time passes.

Irish composers Linda Buckley, Benedict Schlepper-Connolly and Garrett Sholdice have found inspiration in the clarity of Léonin’s constructions, and the quality of his simple materials. Their works are personal acts of homage, remembrance and celebration.

Organum on 'Viderunt Omnes' / Léonin

The first movement of 'Rise up, my love' by Howard Skempton, taken from the EP of the same name by the Irish Youth Chamber Choir under conductor Greg Beardsell. 

A celebration of the sensual, the vital and the earthly, 'Rise up, my love', is a passionate debut from the Irish Youth Chamber Choir. The title comes from English composer Howard Skempton and his four-movement setting of fragments from the 'Song of Songs', a biblical text unique in its joyous narrations of human intimacy. 'Rise up, my love' is typical of Skempton’s paired-down, exquisitely balanced compositional style. The words are everything, and nothing is over-stated. Beardsell and his singers match this approach in a flowing, natural interpretation that allows Skempton’s rich harmonies to really breathe and bloom.

https://ergodos.ie/shop/rise-up-my-love/

Rise Up, My Love / Howard Skempton

A luxuriant set of recordings, The feeling of remembering (released on cd) and re:play (released on vinyl), present music for cello by the singular English composer Christopher Fox. Both formats share much of the same music – but each format frames the material in its own unique way, making for a beautiful, mutually enriching, collectable pair. Experimental music luminary Anton Lukoszevieze’s playing is in sharp focus here; the cellist also provides the iconic cover photograph.

Memory – “what we remember and how we remember it” – is the over-arching theme here. The feeling of remembering re-occurs across the CD like a re-encountered memory – each time the same, each time different. The dark road – “a memory of the Irish community in Leeds” – is also involved in recollection.  
The Cd version of this piece is hauntingly underscored by voices of men who came from Ireland to Leeds to build the English motorways. Fox describes re:play as “music which gradually forgets itself – a briefly sketched melody that can never be recalled, in spite of recordings which remember what has just been forgotten”. 

Other works find inspiration in the rich qualities of the instrument, or an aesthetic question. Susan’s purple delights in the full-throated voice of the cello, whilst Arc re-imagines the instrument as a hurdy-gurdy. The principle of design takes its title from the writings of late-nineteenth-century writer and feminist Charlotte Perkins Gilman: “I know a little of the principle of design, and I know this thing was not arranged on any laws of radiation, or alternation, or repetition, or symmetry.”

Christopher Fox (b.1955) is widely regarded as one of the most individual composers of his generation, often working at a tangent to the musical mainstream. He has chosen to base his compositional career around close collaborations with a number of performers, including the instrumental groups Ives Ensemble, Knm Berlin and Apartment House, and the vocal ensembles The Clerks and Exaudi. His work regularly extends beyond the conventional boundaries of the concert hall and includes the radio piece Three Constructions after Kurt Schwitters, the evening-long ensemble installation, Everything You Need To Know, and the music-theatre documentary Widerstehen. He lives in London with his wife, the writer Susan McNally, and is Professor of Music at Brunel University.

Cellist and inter-disciplinary artist Anton Lukoszevieze (lu-ko-shev-it-sheh) is one of the most diverse performers of his generation. Notable for his performances of avant-garde, experimental and improvised music, Lukoszevieze has given many performances at numerous international festivals. From 2003 until 2014 he was a member of the Zeitkratzer ensemble. He is noted for his use of the curved bow (Bach.Bogen), which he is using to develop new repertoire for the cello. In 2012 he was awarded a Royal Philharmonic Society Award for outstanding contributions to chamber music.

Frankie Gavin (fiddle), Malachy Bourke (fiddle).

From the forthcoming album "The masters return", celebrating the legacy of Sligo fiddle player Paddy Killoran.

https://ergodos.ie/shop/ticket/the-santa-rita-concerts-frankie-gavin-malachy-bourke-brian-bourke/

The enchanted lady / The Holy Land (reels)

"What is living and what is dead" marks the solo debut of Irish composer Simon O’Connor on the Ergodos label. An immaculately crafted, beautiful and poignant collection of nine piano pieces, this new album is the result of over three years work from conception to release.

“I wanted to create something that could make a profound emotional connection with people, music that could really draw listeners inward to themselves and awaken a sense of joy in the beauty of the world around them,” says O’Connor of the 57-minute long collection, which takes it’s title from a lecture given by the late historian and social commentator Tony Judt. 

“More than ever, I felt the need to create music that could reconnect every listener to a childish sense of wonder; music that takes its joy in simple melody and delicate harmony; music that is – at it’s core – an embodiment of optimism.”

Childlike melodies are pitched against ever-changing harmonic landscapes, in a desperate plea for beauty in a world gone austere. This is a wordless political polemic that cries out for more space, beauty, slowness and understanding in a time of pessimism and intellectual voids.

Performed by Ireland’s foremost young pianist Michael McHale, What is living and what is dead is the work of the Irish production duo of Garrett Sholdice and Benedict Schlepper-Connolly. Recorded in Berlin and then completed in Munich by reknowned mastering engineer Christoph Stickel (ecm, Deutsche Grammophon, Sony Classical) this unique release will be available worldwide from 3 January 2016.

Simon O'Connor is a Dublin-based composer whose musical life began in punk bands as a young teen. Musically self-taught, he worked primarily in theatre composition before forming seminal Dublin psych-rock band The Jimmy Cake. A graduate of Trinity College, Dublin, where he studied with composers Donnacha Dennehy and Kevin Volans, O’Connor has for many years worked primarily in a tonal, minimal palette, writing for chamber ensembles and solo musicians. His new song cycle, Left Behind – commissioned by vocalist Michelle O’Rourke, will form the centrepiece of the Irish Republic’s International Women’s Day Celebrations in 2016.

Belfast-born Michael McHale is one of Ireland’s leading pianists. Since completing his studies at Cambridge University and the Royal Academy of Music, he has developed a busy international career as a solo recitalist, concerto soloist and chamber musician. He has performed at many important musical centres including Suntory Hall, Tokyo; Lincoln Center, New York; Symphony Hall, Boston; Konzerthaus, Berlin; Pesti Vigadó, Budapest, and the Ushuaia, Chopiniana and Tanglewood Festivals. Michael’s debut solo album The Irish Piano was selected as ‘CD of the Week’ by critic Norman Lebrecht, who described it as “a scintillating recital … fascinating from start to stop”, whilst Gramophone praised “the singing sensibility of McHale's sensitive and polished pianism”.

Available worldwide from 3 January 2016. Visit www.ergodos.ie for more information.

Download the press pack at http://downloads.ergodos.ie/press/ER21.zip

Facebook http://facebook.com/ergodos
Twitter http://twitter.com/ergodos

What is living and what is dead – I

From the upcoming release by Michael McHale. 

Available from 27 January 2016 from www.ergodos.ie


Michael McHale / Schubert: Four Impromptus, D. 899 (Op. 90)- No. 3 In G - Flat Major

From the album, "Left behind" by Michelle O'Rourke and Simon O'Connor.
http://ergodos.ie/left-behind

Left Behind: From The Water (Song Of Muriel)

There is an Island combine rich vocals, earthy violin textures, minimal piano and etherial soundscapes to form songs inspired by the memories and places that linger in our hearts. In this arresting new Irish trio, singer Michelle O’Rourke and the composing duo of Benedict Schlepper-Connolly (violin) and Garrett Sholdice (piano) channel an eclectic spread of influences – from Nick Cave to Planxty to Mozart – to create unforgettable, intimate performances. Expect hushed invocations, oceanic lullabies and haunting melodies with a sound that is at once transparent and full of warmth.

http://ergodos.ie/there-is-an-island

There Is An Island – Evensong

A song after the poetry of Francis Ledwidge by There is an Island. 
Commissioned by Solstice Arts Centre in 2017.
www.ergodos.ie/there-is-an-island

With Flowers

Inamorata

Large Cold Sun

He Does Not Pass

Horse-drawn Thoughts

"The Melting Song" is from Seán Mac Erlaine's new album "Music for Empty Ears", which is released on 25 May 2018 and is now available to pre-order here: 
https://ergodos.ie/shop/releases/music-for-empty-ears/

---

Seán Mac Erlaine’s richly-textured woodwind sound meets an expanded palette on Music for Empty Ears, the Irish musician’s breathtaking new album. Having honed his distinctively-shaped soliloquies over his first two solo records, Mac Erlaine’s work now bears the mark of collaborations with Norwegian luminaries Jan Bang and Eivind Aarset to reveal a fresh, variegated musical language.



The album journeys through a splendour of musical shades: from the gently insistent minimal grooves and hushed invocations of tracks such as ‘The Melting Song’; to slow pans across dark, saturated vistas on tracks such as ‘Winter Flat Map’; to a warm, celebratory treatment of the Irish traditional tune ‘An Buachaill Caol Dubh’; and to moments of visceral, splintered abstraction in ‘Shake and Sigh’ and ‘The Alchemist III’.

Whether it’s the elusive vocals of Galway singer Sadhbh Ní Dhálaigh or Mac Erlaine’s sublime clarinet melodies that catch you, Music for Empty Ears is an album that reveals more and more with each listen. And, with a bespoke print by Dublin design studio Destinctive Repetition, the heavyweight vinyl of Music for Empty Ears is a beautiful and sumptious object to hold as much as to hear.

Seán Mac Erlaine is a Dublin-based woodwind instrumentalist, composer and music producer, recognised as one of Ireland’s most forward-thinking creative musicians. Mac Erlaine works in a variety of settings from free improvisation, contemporary jazz, folk music and experimental theatre, and is a member of the groups This is How We Fly and the Quiet Music Ensemble. “One of the most interesting and adventurous musicians of his generation” – The Irish Times

Electronic musician/producer Jan Bang has worked with such luminaries as Jon Hassell, David Sylvian, Brian Eno, and Arve Henriksen. From his work as a pop producer in the 90s, his pioneering work in developing the concept of live remix has led to him being constantly in-demand as producer and performer today. “[Jan Bang is] defying all misconceptions about the vast potential of electronic composition.” – All About Jazz

Eivind Aarset is a guitarist with a unique musical vision that absorbs and reflects all manner of music while retaining an enviable individualism and high quality craftsmanship that can span from quiet intimacy to searing intensity. As one of Norway’s most in-demand guitarists, Eivind Aarset has worked with Jon Hassell, David Sylvian, Bill Laswell, Jan Garbarek and many more. “Norwegian Eivind Aarset is in a class of his own proving that lyricism and raw noise aren’t contradictory.” – The Guardian

The Melting Song

From "Music for Empty Ears", the new album by Seán Mac Erlaine:
https://ergodos.ie/shop/releases/music-for-empty-ears/

***

Seán Mac Erlaine’s richly-textured woodwind sound meets an expanded palette on Music for Empty Ears, the Irish musician’s breathtaking new album. Having honed his distinctively-shaped soliloquies over his first two solo records, Mac Erlaine’s work now bears the mark of collaborations with Norwegian luminaries Jan Bang and Eivind Aarset to reveal a fresh, variegated musical language.

The album journeys through a splendour of musical shades: from the gently insistent minimal grooves and hushed invocations of tracks such as ‘The Melting Song’; to slow pans across dark, saturated vistas on tracks such as ‘Winter Flat Map’; to a warm, celebratory treatment of the Irish traditional tune ‘An Buachaill Caol Dubh’; and to moments of visceral, splintered abstraction in ‘Shake and Sigh’ and ‘The Alchemist III’.

Whether it’s the elusive vocals of Galway singer Sadhbh Ní Dhálaigh or Mac Erlaine’s sublime clarinet melodies that catch you, Music for Empty Ears is an album that reveals more and more with each listen. And, with a bespoke print by Dublin design studio Destinctive Repetition, the heavyweight vinyl of Music for Empty Ears is a beautiful and sumptious object to hold as much as to hear.

Seán Mac Erlaine is a Dublin-based woodwind instrumentalist, composer and music producer, recognised as one of Ireland’s most forward-thinking creative musicians. Mac Erlaine works in a variety of settings from free improvisation, contemporary jazz, folk music and experimental theatre, and is a member of the groups This is How We Fly and the Quiet Music Ensemble. “One of the most interesting and adventurous musicians of his generation” – The Irish Times

Electronic musician/producer Jan Bang has worked with such luminaries as Jon Hassell, David Sylvian, Brian Eno, and Arve Henriksen. From his work as a pop producer in the 90s, his pioneering work in developing the concept of live remix has led to him being constantly in-demand as producer and performer today. “[Jan Bang is] defying all misconceptions about the vast potential of electronic composition.” – All About Jazz

Eivind Aarset is a guitarist with a unique musical vision that absorbs and reflects all manner of music while retaining an enviable individualism and high quality craftsmanship that can span from quiet intimacy to searing intensity. As one of Norway’s most in-demand guitarists, Eivind Aarset has worked with Jon Hassell, David Sylvian, Bill Laswell, Jan Garbarek and many more. “Norwegian Eivind Aarset is in a class of his own proving that lyricism and raw noise aren’t contradictory.” – The Guardian

Music for Empty Ears

Seán Mac Erlaine / En Fetelle Mai

01 Clarinet Quintet In B Minor, Op. 115: Allegro

“This album charts a direct line back to my beginnings as a musician: I was an annoying child who was always singing, and at seven I started learning the violin. Writing fragments down and singing along with them was a natural consequence. These pieces are my most direct and personal; they deal with love, art, the horrors of learning solfège, breaking voices, and memory.” – Andrew Hamilton

Andrew Hamilton – voice, violin

All compositions (words and music) by Andrew Hamilton, except: "The Spirit of Art", which uses words by Andrew Hamilton, Ulrike Syha and Hagen Betzwieser; "May", which uses words by Heinrich Heine, translated by the composer; and "i and i", which is an arrangement of “Non lo dirò col labbro” by G.F. Händel, and uses a recording of the composer as a child singing “Silent Worship” (Händel, adapted by Arthur Somervell), accompanied by Frank Hughes (piano).

Recorded December 2014 and June 2019 at Royal Birmingham Conservatoire (with special thanks to Dr. Simon Hall). Mixed in Dublin. Mastered at Entertape, Vienna.

Produced by Adrian Hart & Benedict Schlepper-Connolly. Mixed by Adrian Hart. Mastered by Christoph Stickel.

Cover image of the composer as a child by Graham Hamilton.

Andrew Hamilton is supported by a grant from the PRS Foundation’s Open Fund.

Andrew Hamilton / May

'Invocation' by Enda Bates.

This track is taken from 'Dubh', the debut album by Amsterdam-based group Trio Scordatura.

'Dubh' is released on Ergodos Records.

For more info and to purchase the album, click here: http://www.ergodos.ie/shop/dubh/

Invocation / Enda Bates / Trio Scordatura

'Immersia - 1' by Linda Buckley

This track is taken from 'Immersia', a 3-track EP of ambient electronica by Cork-born composer Linda Buckley. 

'Immersia' is released on Ergodos Records.

For more info, and to purchase the album, click here: http://www.ergodos.ie/shop/immersia/

Immersia – I / Linda Buckley

'O Vis Aeternitatis', a composition by Hildegard von Bingen, arranged by Seán Mac Erlaine.

This track is taken from 'Long After the Music is Gone', a solo album by Dublin-based woodwind instrumentalist and composer Seán Mac Erlaine.

'Long After the Music is Gone' is released on Ergodos Records.

For more info, and to purchase the album, click here: http://www.ergodos.ie/shop/long-after-the-music-is-gone/

O Vis Aeternitatis / Hildegard Von Bingen, arr. Seán Mac Erlaine

'Ich ruf zu dir, Herr Jesu Christ', a composition by J.S. Bach, transcribed by Garrett Sholdice.

This track is taken from 'I Call to You', a record of music inspired by music by Baroque master Johann Sebastian Bach, and performed by the Dublin-based group Ergodos Musicians.

'I Call to You' is released on Ergodos Records.

For more info, and to purchase the album, click here: http://www.ergodos.ie/shop/i-call-to-you/

Ich ruf zu dir, Herr Jesu Christ / J.S. Bach, trans. Garrett Sholdice / Ergodos Musicians

'Ich bitt, erhör mein Klagen' by Benedict Schlepper-Connolly.

This track is taken from 'I Call to You', a record of music inspired by music by Baroque master Johann Sebastian Bach, and performed by the Dublin-based group Ergodos Musicians.

'I Call to You' is released on Ergodos Records.

For more info, and to purchase the album, click here: http://www.ergodos.ie/shop/i-call-to-you/

Ich bitt, erhör mein Klagen / Benedict Schlepper-Connolly / Ergodos Musicians

Toner Quinn – Cúl na nGabhar / Ríl An Raithín

Ergodos is a record label and production house based in Dublin, Ireland.

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