Written in Guillaume and Isobel's kitchen in Hackney Downs during the big snow in December 2009. I had just returned to London from a few months spent in the States, completely broke, and in need of a new flat and a new job, but very happy nonetheless. Recorded at Arad Studios in December 2013. 

St Marks' Rise I

Abyss

Live performance by the National Symphony Orchestra of Ireland at the National Concert Hall, Dublin as part of the Contemporary Music Centre's composer lab event on the 9th January 2023. 
Broadcast live on RTÉ Lyric FM.
Produced and recorded by RTÉ Lyric FM.

-	Title of the piece is a quote by Fernando Pessoa, a Portugese poet/writer. I heard this quote in a French movie by Jean-Luc Godard called “Hélas pour moi” and it struck me in a profound way. 

-	This piece is about the idea of nature reclaiming the earth once humankind have wiped themselves out. 

-	It features various states of growth and takeover as remnants of human-made structures get covered, tangled, choked and destroyed by plant-life.

-	A musical time-lapse culminating in a calm, poignantly beautiful, but ultimately lonely world.

Everything was asleep as if the universe was a vast mistake - 2022

The Lair

Earlier in 2014 local Wexford-based artist/filmmaker and sheep farmer, Els Dietvorst asked me to write the theme song for her film, 'The Rabbit & The Teasel'. The film tells the tale of a farmer as he struggles to survive apocalyptic flooding due to rising sea levels and relentless storms. Eerily enough, as I began writing the song last February the worst storms to hit Ireland in living memory struck, and flooded every coastal townland and village along the west and south coasts of the country, Wexford included. 

Water Rising

Pushing Air (for RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra conducted by Gavin Maloney)

"Better than Silence" and "Silver Apples" recorded and mixed by Les Keye at Arad Studios.

"Blood" and "Roze's Kitchen" recorded and mixed by Shane Cullen at K9 Studios.

Mastered by Liam Grant.

Strings:
Larissa O'Grady
Karl Sweeney
Nathan Sherman
Lioba Petrie.

Copyright @Ana Gog 2017

Better Than Silence

On 25th May Ireland will vote on amending its restrictive abortion laws. I was asked by Room for Rebellion and C.A.N.V.A.S. to create a piece for a compilation in aid of pro-choice charities to be released prior to the referendum. For logistical reasons this compilation won’t be released until later in the year, so I’ve decided to share the piece now, a week away from the referendum.

If you’re an Irish citizen or resident, please donate to Together for Yes:
https://www.togetherforyes.ie/donate/
If you’re not an Irish citizen or resident, please donate to Abortion Support Network or Alliance for Choice: https://www.asn.org.uk  http://www.alliance4choice.com/donate-2/

ABOUT THE PIECE:

“I am an old woman now, with one foot in the grave and the other on its edge.” 

Like most people of my generation, I studied the work of Peig Sayers (1873-1958) at school and the opening lines of her 1936 autobiography "Peig" are burned into my consciousness. "Peg 2018" takes those opening lines as a starting point, but departs immediately from the original, imagining the reflections of an entirely different, fictional Peg, an Irishwoman born in the 1950s. 

NOTE: The piece in no way represents the views of Peig Sayers or her descendants.
CONTENT ADVISORY: Material may be distressing for some listeners.

Image: Gustave Courbet's Jo, the Beautiful Irish Girl

Peg 2018

It's called "I like to eat" and is about eating.  Guitar, ukulele solo (with GarageBand effect to make it sounds like an electric guitar), tambourine, voice and original song by yours truly! But the guitar part was originally a GarageBand loop that Shawnee told me how to play because I couldn't even work it out myself.

I like to eat

The Wild Hour Show- Podcast 13 - Interview with Internationally renowned Singing Teacher/Conductor and Choir Director of the Lismorahaun Singers  of the Burren Co. Clare Ireland- Archie Simpson.  For more information about Archie and the Choir go to www.lismorahaunsingers.com. For more interviews with the Wild Hour Show and host Emmy Winning Actor Writer and Film Maker Alan Cooke go to www.thewildhourshow.wordpress.com or www.wildirishpoet.com

ARCHIE Simpson -  WILD HOUR SHOW

it's in the trees, it's coming (for large ensemble)

On my Soundcloud page you can find live recordings from various concerts my pieces have been performed at over the years. Check out Spotify or my webpage for my studio recorded CD's.
I am a composer/musician/performer and all round music lover based in Dublin, Ireland. I have been writing music for the past 20 years and have been greatly inspired by living in such places as Berlin, London, York, Paris and Dublin. In general my music stems from the electro-acoustic world and its core technique is based on the pratices of musique concrète. Over the years this has expanded and been influenced by more improvised and instrumental territories derived from a deep exploration of instrumental timbre through collaborative projects with a large number of solo musicians.

My work is deeply textural and developed through complex layering techniques. For the most part each piece is highly collaborative as I work closely with musicians to find out what their instruments can do. Over the years I have recorded a wide range of instruments from the standard orchestral choices to the Ondes Martenot and adapted viola. Each player offers something new to the mix and so each piece is unique to the player(s) involved.

I will continue to explore different instruments and also different instrumental styles expanding out of the classical domain and into jazz, world music, traditional and popular styles to see what I can learn from them.

I ran a night called Listen at Lilliput with Laura Hyland and we put on music events every second month at Lillliput Press in Stonerbatter Dublin. www.facebook.com/listenatlilliput
www.soundcloud.com/listenatlilliput
www.twitter.com/listenlilliput

Over the years my work has been performed by numerous ensembles in Europe and North America including Concorde ensemble (Ireland), Crash ensemble (Ireland), Evlana (Ireland), Bradyworks (Canada) and Percussemble (Germany). I have also worked/recorded closely with a great many wonderful musicians such as Lina Andonovska (flute), Matthew Jacobson (drums), Martin Johnson (cello), Kate Ellis (cello), Malachy Robinson (double bass), Michelle O’Rourke (mezzo soprano), Garth Knox (viola), Natasha Lohan (mezzo soprano), Rolf Hind (piano), Paul Roe (clarinet), Jane O’Leary (piano), Laura Moody (cello), Beau Stocker (percussion), Damien Harron (percussion), Panayiotis Demopoulos (piano), Valerie Pearson (violin), Elisabeth Smalt (adapted viola), Nathalie Forget (Ondes Martenot), Andre Leroux (tenor saxophone) and many more. See my LIVE page to find out who played on what.

After completing my PhD by composition at the University of York, UK in 2009 I returned to Ireland to re-establish myself on the Irish music scene. Since then I have expanded my musical output by writing for theatre (OFF PLAN by Simon Doyle), putting together a multidisciplinary festival called Sensorium with two colleagues of mine from York, Angie Atmadjaja and Emily Kalies and accompanying composer/songwriter Laura Hyland on vocals under the name Clang Sayne. Myself and Laura also run a night bi-monthly called Listen at Lilliput which aims to promote people who are exploring their music in interesting ways. It is held in Lilliput Press, Stoneybatter, Dublin on the last Sunday of every second month. 

I am a co-founder of The-Link-Project organization, alongside Angie Atmadjaja, Emily Kalies and Enrico Bertelli, through which the music festival “Sensorium” was presented in March 2011 at Project, Cube, with funding from a music project award from the Arts Council of Ireland. This festival aimed to promote music in innovative arrangements including contemporary music, improvisation, electronic music, electro-acoustic music, music and video, music and dance and performance art along with other co-creative media.

Everything was asleep as if the universe was a vast mistake - 2022

Judith Ring

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