One of my favourite airs from the sean-nós tradition. Lyrics with English translation at http://www.celticlyricscorner.net/compilations/aisling.htm

Matthew Horsley - uilleann pipes.

Aisling Gheal

This is probably my favourite air to play on the pipes. I think its a staggeringly profound and touching piece of music. Today it's dedicated to the life of Jenny Morrish. Go well.

Matthew Horsley - uilleann pipes
Matthew Horsley plays a set of uilleann pipes in C made by Derrick Gleeson.

The Bright Lady

This is the first track I'm releasing off my new album, Australian Waters, available at www.matthewhorsley.com/cd

Matthew Horsley - uilleann pipes
Engineered, mixed and mastered by Myles Mumford

Matt plays a set of uilleann pipes pitched in C made by Derrick Gleeson.

The Rolling Wave

Here's another track from my album. This time featuring the phenomenal Mairéad Hurley of Co. Sligo on concertina.

Matthew Horsley - uilleann pipes
Mairéad Hurley - concertina
Engineered, mixed and mastered by Myles Mumford

Terry Heigh Ho The Grinder/Elizabeth Kelly's/The Fowler On The Moor (slip jig/jig/fling)

A piece composed for 5x5x5 at the Arts Centre Melbourne.

Thea Rossen, percussion
Kaylie Melville, percussion
Jennifer Timmins, flute
Emmanuel Cassimatis, cor anglais
Kenny Keppel, bass clarinet
Matthew Horsley, conductor

Matthew Horsley - Spaces Without

For guitar, bass, percussion and edited recordings. Performed by Elliott Folvig, Jon Heilbron and Matthew Horsley.

Backtrack (a contratiempo)

Performed by Scott McConnachie (tenor sax), Kim Tan (piccolo/flute), Ryan Williams (recorders), Matthew Horsley (percussion. Recorded 21 November 2011 at Bennetts Lane Jazz Club.

I - Afterimage (Queensland Backstep)
II - Exorcisms (for Albert Ayler)

Murdering Creek Road lies a short distance inland from Perigian Beach on Queensland's Sunshine Coast. The name commemorates a premeditated massacre of the local Gubbi Gubbi people by white cattlemen believed to have occurred in the 1860s. Perhaps unsurprisingly, it is a prominent area for local ghost sightings. When I happened upon it on a cold, fog-shrouded night I could certainly believe it.

Murdering Creek Road is an evocation of such a place and the ghosts of the past (be they real or metaphorical) that can be said to inhabit it. Memories of the horror and chaos of the massacre are ever-present, sometimes muted, sometimes cacophonic. Fragments of traditional Australian tunes surface periodically from the frenzy, disembodied spectres themselves. By the end of the first movement, rural nostalgia has descended into manic revelry in a sort of diabolical bushdance.

The second movement explores the concept of atonement, asking whether the ghosts can be appeased and the land made whole again. This particular exorcism draws on the African-American liturgy and in particular the Pentecostal perorations of the free jazz saxophonist Albert Ayler. Bearing in mind that in at least one account of the massacre it occurred immediately after a Sunday church service, it poses more questions than it answers. Can such horrors be forgiven? Should they be forgotten? Above all, could it happen again? The only answer we receive is the percussive equivocation of the pobblebonk frogs.

Murdering Creek Road

A composition/improvisation of mine for tuned rice bowls and any other combination of instruments. This version features Ryan Williams on recorders and myself on percussion. Recorded 2 August 2010 at Melba Hall, University of Melbourne.

Passacaglia

Uilleann piper, composer and recovering percussionist. Based in Melbourne.

Matt Horsley

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