CLOG

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Rob Casey - piano / inside piano
David Lacey - drums / percussion
Seán Óg - saxophones / bass clarinet

Formed in 2007 CLOG have already made a name on the Dublin scene as a trio of fearless improvisors. Boasting some of Ireland's leading free improvisation musicians and intent on pursuing a raw and viseral approach to contemporary improvisation, this group has already garnered substantial critical success. In February 2008 they performed with German reed man Frank Gratkowski as well as Greek dancer Marguerite Papazoglou.

Rob Casey (piano, prepared piano):
Rob Casey is an Irish musician/composer currently based in Dublin. He studied at Leeds College of music. After completing his degree he moved to Paris where he worked as a pianist and became a member of the state assisted artist’s collective La Vache Bleue. Returning to Ireland in 2005 he resumed his studies at Trinity College Dublin recently graduating with an M.Phil in music and media technologies. In the past year he has had multi-media works performed at the Galway Visual Arts Festival and in the Project Arts Centre in Dublin’s Temple Bar. He has collaborated with visual artist Tom Flanagan, had works selected for performance by members of the Crash ensemble and Node, Trinity College’s new music ensemble, and has written music for the Northern Film Festival in the UK. He is also a contributor to the music journal JMI and was recently asked to present his work at the Dublin Arts and Technology Association (DATA) as part of the DEAF festival.

David Lacey (drums, percussion, preparations):
David Lacey (b. 1969) is a musician based in Dublin. He uses traditional acoustic drumkit, objects manipulated via crude electronics and field recordings. Active in improvised music since the mid-90’s, he has collaborated with musicians such as Mark Wastell, Keith Rowe, Rhodri Davies, Angharad Davies, Lee Patterson, Annette Krebs and Derek Bailey as well as working regularly with Irish musicians Paul Vogel, Fergus Kelly, Seán Óg and Rob Casey and the Irish-Swedish quartet Chip Shop Music (with Vogel, Erik Carlsson and Martin Küchen. Since 2003, he has been a co-curator of ‘i-and-e’ which organises concerts and an annual festival of improvised music which takes place in Dublin. His has had releases on the Confront, Cathnor and Room Temperature labels, as well as Homefront, the label he founded with Paul Vogel in 2007. Recent releases include ‘Poor Trade’, a trio recording with Rhodri Davies and Dennis McNulty and ‘The British Isles, a duo with Paul Vogel.

In addition to this, Lacey has composed music for theatre, worked with dance companies and provided drums for a number of groups ranging from folk to electronica.

Seán Óg (alto / soprano saxophone, bass clarinet, preparations):
Seán Óg is a performer, composer and bandleader playing a range of woodwind instruments as well as invented instruments and electronics. His music sits somewhere at the crossroads between free improvisation, avant-garde composition, and contemporary jazz. He studied saxophone under Michael Buckley and graduated with a Diploma in Jazz Studies from The London Guildhall School of Music in 2002. Since then he teaches improvisation, jazz idiom and ensemble at Newpark Music Centre. A much in demand player on the Irish scene, he leads his own group Trihornophone (2007 winners of Music Network's Young Musicwide Award) along with solo projects OneManBike and performing solo saxophone / bass clarinet recitals. Seán has performed extensively in Europe playing festivals in France, UK, Amsterdam, Antwerp and Brussels. In Ireland he has performed at The Festival of World Cultures, Cork Jazz Festival, Bray Jazz Festival, i & e festival 2007, OUT OF SITE 2006 along with headline gigs at DEAF 2005 and Mór Festival (Damo Suzuki Network). Outside of leading his own groups, interdisciplinary projects include compositions and performances for Imram Festival, Dublin Theatre Festival, Dublin Fringe Festival and various dance productions. In 2006 he was awarded a multi-annual bursary from the Arts Council to work on his approach to solo woodwind improvisation. He is a co-founder of experimental theatre company The Stomach Box and a member of The Deserted Village collective and The Livingroom Project.