About

"Adventurous [and] dynamic... undeniably powerful and at times beautiful improvisation.” - All About Jazz.
"An encouraging example of the spirit of innovation current in Irish contemporary music" - The Journal of Music.
“One of the most original voices on the Dublin scene” – Sunday Tribune.
"An interesting show, most particularly in Seán Óg's soundtrack, which uses found sound to eerie effect."- The Guardian
"A breath of fresh air, fleshing out the musical textures with electronics, using them with verve and individuality... a surprising music whose kaleidoscopic colours, textures and original lines constantly confounded expectation." Irish Times

Seán Mac Erlaine is a Dublin based multi-instrumentalist and composer, he has performed and released music under the Seán Óg moniker from 2002 until 2010. Seán works in a variety of settings including free improvisation, contemporary jazz, folk music and experimental theatre.

An accomplished woodwind instrumentalist, Seán plays alto and soprano saxophones as well as clarinet and bass clarinet. He holds a first degree honours Masters of Music (Jazz Performance) from DIT and a Diploma in Jazz Performance awarded by The Guildhall School of Music, London and has studied composition with composers Stephen Gardner and Ronan Guilfoyle. He is currently a PhD candidate at GradCAM (Graduate School of Creative Arts & Media), developing a practice-led research around live electronics in solo woodwind performance.

Seán performs with a hugely diverse range of musicians and artists reflecting his own versatility and interest in cross-platform work. Within the field of jazz he has worked with leading Irish players including Tommy Halferty, Mike Nielsen, Ronan Guilfoyle and Simon Jermyn, and international artists including Frank Gratkowski, Hayden Chisholm, Christian Weidner and Christian Skjødt. Seán has also played with a range of folk / traditional musicians including Caoimhín O’Raghallaigh, Iarla O’Lionaird, Martin Tourish, Eithne Ní Chatháin, Petter Berndalen and Lorcán Mac Mathúna. In contemporary circles he has performed with The Smith Quartet, The ConTempo Quartet, David Toop, John Godfrey (as a member of The Quiet Music Ensemble) as well as a once-off performance with Detroit techno legends Underground Resistance.

He has performed his own music at many festivals including i & e festival, The Dun Laoghaire Festival of World Cultures, DEAF, Bottlenote Festival, Cork Jazz Festival, Bray Jazz Festival, Foligno Jazz Festival, Dublin Fringe Festival, The Dublin Theatre Festival, The Kilkenny Arts Festival, 12 Points! and The Venice Biennale '09

In 2007 his group Trihornophone won Music Network's Young Musicwide Award, Seán was awarded the 2008 Cork Jazz Festival Best Young Irish Artist Award. In 2009 Dublin Institute of Technology awarded him the ABBEST Scholarship to undertake a practice-based PhD in around live electronics practice. He was nominated for Best Sound Designer and won Best Production at The Irish Times Theatre Awards 2010. He is a founder member of Bottlenote, a collective of creative musicians working in improvised and new music (www.bottlenotemusic.com). Seán can be heard on over 30 CDs and his work has been released on several international labels.

POSTSCRIPT:

Seán's (Sean's) name is spelt a little like the female name Elaine with an 'r' after the 'E', also the Mc bit is spelt with an 'a' and he likes a space between these words. His name is commonly mis-spelt Sean McErlane, MacErlean, McErlean, Mac Ahlane, Shaun Mcerlaine and a raft of other variants. If you are interested in typing or writing Seán's name please use the Seán Mac Erlaine spelling! Thanks!