Seán Mac Erlaine | musician, composer, saxophonist, producer

News 2011

Signing off for 2011. Much gratitude to all the great audiences over the year. It's been a really optimistic time for us despite all the other pessimism: thank you! 2012 will be another busy one - Seán Mac Erlaine solo album due for release in the early new year; new CD from The Quiet Music Ensemble; new CD from The Táin Project; Recording with This is How we Fly in Sweden; new project with Simon Jermyn, Isabelle O'Connell, Caoimhin O Raghallaigh and Sean Carpio; Solo tour; John Cage Celebrations; World Domination with Donal Dineen; This is How we Fly tours; Bottlenote Festival 2012 and lots and lots of other made-up-as-we-go-along things. Stay tuned...

This is How we Fly with Dublin Laptop Orchestra :: filmed by Myles O'Reilly

Trailblazers, Aha Moments & Sonic Wonder: Secret Acts of Non-Compliance
Smock Alley Theatre, The Boys School, Dublin 2 | Dec 21st
7:00pm Trailblazers & Aha Moments (donation )
9:30 Sonic pop – up ( €10 )

One Wild Life & pop - up productions are delighted to host a super special Christmas spectacular on Wednesday December 21st bringing together 12 trailblazers to share their ‘Aha moments’ and secret acts of non-compliance followed by a sonic pop-up showcasing some of Ireland’s pioneering music makers.

This pop- up event is a rare opportunity to gain insight into why movers and shakers do what they do. We invite you to hear how others have stepped off the beaten track to forge their own paths and perform their own inner acts of non-compliance. But most of all the evening is about looking at the possibility and potential for tapping into our current resources and evolving with and through this current sea of change. We need a population that is willing to rock the boat, stand up and be non-compliant with the status quo. The evening will showcase what is possible when individuals stop asking for permission and step into making their own dreams and ambitions a reality.

December Trailblazers include: Amanda Coogan, Aaron Copland, Caoimhin O’ Raghallaigh, Cathy O’ Conor, David Hayes, Joan Freeman, John O’ Donoghue, Marie Mulholland, Mick Kelly, Orla Tinsely, Michelle Darmody, Philly McMahon.

Musical line-up includes: Donal Dineen, Caoimhin O’ Raghallaigh, Kate Ellis, Laura Sheeran, Linda Buckley, Donal Lunny and Seán Mac Erlaine.

"Some of the most ear-opening music..." - Last Night's Fun
"Traditional music shot through with the adrenaline of
contemporary influences: a lethal but irresistible cocktail." - The Irish Times
"A white-hot creative crucible uniting four pyrotechnic young talents." - Celtic Connections

This is How we Fly | December 2011 Tour | Dublin, Ballymoney, Bangor, Belfast

Tuesday 6th December | The Grand Social, Dublin 1, Ireland | 8pm | €15/13
Presented by The Liffey Banks Sessions & Music Network.

Wednesday 7th December | North Down Museum, Bangor | 8pm | £11/9
Presented by Moving on Music. Booking and details at www.movingonmusic.com

Thursday 8th December | Town Hall, Ballymoney | 8pm | £9/7
Presented by Moving on Music. Booking and details at www.movingonmusic.com

Friday 9th December | Black Box, Belfast | 8pm | £12/10
Presented by Moving on Music. Booking and details at www.movingonmusic.com

Sunday 11th December | Smock Alley Theatre | 8pm | €10
Performance with Dublin Laptop Orchestra with live visuals by Donal Dineen

Full details on www.thisishowwefly.net

The Trailer of Bridget Dinnigan | Axis Ballymun |
5-9th December 2011 | 8pm €15/12/10 | Book Now!

Following its sell-out success at Project Arts Centre in 2010, the Irish Traveller Movement in association with Blanchardstown Traveller Development Group are pleased to present a new adaptation of ‘The House of Bernarda Alba’ by Federico García Lorca which updates this classic Spanish tragedy from the 1930’s to a present-day Travellers’ halting site and features 11 Traveller women as performers. ‘The Trailer of Bridget Dinnigan’ is the result of an experimental two-year process of research, development, adaptation and collaboration between theatre-maker and writer Dylan Tighe, Traveller activist Catherine Joyce and 11 women from the Blanchardstown Traveller Development Group. Sound design and composition by Seán Mac Erlaine.

“In the process they’ve unearthed strong cultural affinities, and found a distinctive and evocative language to echo Lorca’s own...innovative” – Irish Independent

“Profound” – Irish Times

I have written a chapter in this new book about music performance in three Dublin alternative art spaces: The Joinery, Hello Operator & The Centre for Creative Practices.

Dublin's Future: New Visions for Ireland's Capital City - Edited by Lorcan Sirr

"What’s good for Dublin is very good for Ireland. Dublin’s Future: New Visions for Ireland’s Capital City is a collection of essays which for the first time recognises that the future of the island’s largest and most important urban conurbation is about more than the engineering of roads and the colouring of development plans, and that the success of Dublin will ensure the success of the nation.

Music, literature, housing, ethnic minorities, theatre, energy, and much more all have their role to play in making and sustaining Dublin as firstly Ireland’s premier city and economic engine, and secondly as a place where people will want to live, visit, do business, be educated, create, spend, be cared for, be employed in, and in which to age."

Published by The Liffey Press also available on Amazon

I am playing with The Quiet Music Ensemble at the next Kaleidoscope Night curated by Bernard Clarke. With John Godfrey (guitar) & Ilse De Ziah (Cello). Doors 8.30pm | €10.
Booking is a good idea - this night sells out every month!

WHO ARE YOU? Vol.2.
Donal Dineen and guests live at The Office of Non-Compliance
Dublin Contemporary, Earlsfort Terrace, Dublin 2 | 9pm | €10 Book Here

Sonic wonder Donal Dineen teams up with X-mas Soup partners, painter Guillermo Carrion and visual artist Hector Castells to conjure a one-off picture show and record live video with live music sets from special guests Katie Kim and Seán Mac Erlaine. Full details here

I am playing a few sets at this year's Bottlenote Festival: one solo set, one set of new music for bass clarinet, harmonium, drums and sampler, a trio with Justin Carroll and Tom Arthurs and the final night blow out with 9 great musicians. Check out www.bottlenotemusic.com for full details.

Currently mixing my new solo album for woodwinds and live electronics
entitled "Long After The Music Is Gone."
Here's a mix of track two 'Truskmore'. Full info soon.

The award winning production No Worst There is None from 2009 makes a return as a piece for radio presented as part of The Dublin Theatre Festival 2011. A nightmare journey into the psyche of Gerard Manley Hopkins as he approaches death. Directed and created by Dylan Tighe & Seán Mac Erlaine. Composed and designed by Seán Mac Erlaine with Will O Connell (G.M. Hopkins), David Heap (Newman) and Boys Choir. For this event, the piece is reworked for a multi-channel spatial presentation with a post-show Q&A session with Dylan Tighe, Seán Mac Erlaine and Mark Patrick Hederman of Glenstal Abbey, chaired by Vincent Woods of RTÉ Radio 1’s Arts Tonight.

Drama in the Air | Dublin Theatre Festival | September 23rd | Mill Theatre, Dundrum. Co. Dublin

This is How we Fly new video up!

This is How we Fly get together for three special July concerts, featuring new material
and old gems from our back catalogue...

Saturday 16 July, Áras Inis Gluaire, Belmullet, Co. Mayo, Ireland
8.30pm | €8 / €5 | Tickets: +353 97 81079 or online at www.arasinisgluaire.ie

Sunday 17 July, An Grianán Theatre, Letterkenny, Co. Donegal
8pm | €12 / €8 | Tickets: 074 9120777 or online at www.eaf.ie

Wednesday 20 July, Airfield, Upper Kilmacud Road, Dundrum, Dublin 14
8pm, €16 / €14 | Tickets: 01 2984301 www.airfield.ie

Check www.thisishowwefly.net for videos, audio, photos and news

Vintage Morla - live in Whelans, 2008

Simon Jermyn :: baritone guitar, electronics
Seán Mac Erlaine :: alto sax, electronics

More Morla

Dublin Writers Festival 2011: Tionscadel na hAislinge / The Aisling Project
Tuesday 24th May | The Sugar Club | 8pm | €10/€8 concession
www.dublinwritersfestival.com

The aisling — or vision poem — is a poetic form that developed during the late 17th and 18th centuries. In an aisling, Ireland appears to the poet in a vision or dream in the form of a woman, sometimes young and beautiful, sometimes aged and haggard. This figure is referred to in the poems as a spéirbhean. She laments the state of the Irish people and predicts an imminent renewal of their fortunes, frequently linked to the return of a Stuart pretender to the English throne. The first and greatest of the aisling poets was Aogán Ó Rathaille — athair na haislinge (father of the aisling). In his hands, the aisling is a powerful mode of political writing.

IMRAM and Dublin Writers Festival stage a major reading in which leading Irish language poets Paddy Bushe, Gearóid Mac Lochlainn and Dairena Ní Chinnéide perform newly composed poems in the aisling form addressing the current state of Ireland. These will be performed with specially composed live music by acclaimed composer and multi-instrumentalist Seán Mac Erlaine, and on-screen projections by artist Margaret Lonergan.

New track released on Diatribe Records cross collaboration series, with two remixes (Eamonn Doyle & Zoidan Jankalovich). Stream for free, purchase for €2.

Here's something I found in the archives - picture and recording from Dublin's Kaleidoscope night from February 2010. The piece is an improvisation on Hildegard von Bingen's Ave Generosa.

Presented by bottlenotemusic.com

This is How we Fly // Live in Whelans // March 2011

"A quartet soaked in tradition...intent...to harvest fresh bounties from the seeds of their inheritance... Throughout the evening it was as if the four were deconstructing their repertoire, only to reconstitute it in shapes entirely of their own making. Their shared joie de vivre was palpable, along with the pinprick non-verbal communications that passed between them, literally, in the blink of an eye...Traditional music shot through with the adrenaline of contemporary influences: a lethal but irresistible cocktail." - The Irish Times

Visit the band and get in touch at www.thisishowwefly.net

This is How we Fly | March 18th Whelans, Dublin | March 19th Half Moon, Cork

Tickets now on sale! Click here for Dublin tickets and click here for Cork tickets

Grab 'em quick and check out this contemporary folk band whose music sees Swedish folk rhythms meet the texture of traditional Irish fiddle, percussive dance from America, and improvised jazz and electronics.

With Caoimhín Ó Raghallaigh on fiddle & hardanger fiddle, Seán Mac Erlaine on bass clarinet, saxophones & live electronics, Nic Gareiss on percussive dance, and Petter Berndalen on drums and percussion.

Staarlen by Seán Mac Erlaine

Here's a new track from rehearsals for the upcoming solo show in Project Arts Centre as part of Sensorium, March 8th. It's an improvised piece for clarinet with live electronics. Full info from www.the-link-project.com

New video footage just in: Morla + ConTempo String Quartet
recorded live at The Peppercanister Church, Dublin for BottlenoteFestival 2010

It's official - Seán Óg is no more. I have dropped the Óg moniker which I have used since 2002 or so. Gone back to the roots: Seán Mac Erlaine. I am hoping to release a compilation of the Seán Óg years later in 2011. Possible future variants include Sean Mac an Fhirléinn, the original Irish spelling - depending on how difficult (or 'Irish') I am feeling. The old sean-og.com URL still works but as of 2011 the new address to get here is www.SeanMacErlaine.com

Unveiled! A new year - a new group. This is How we Fly

Caoimhín Ó Raghallaigh – fiddle, hardanger fiddle
Seán Mac Erlaine – bass clarinet, alto saxophone, electronics
Nic Gareiss – percussive dance
Petter Berndalen – drums, percussion

This is How we Fly draws together four artists working at the creative edge of their fields. This remarkable group pulls on strands of innovative Irish music, free improvisation, Swedish fiddle music, traditional dance vocabulary and contemporary folk, creating an infectious performance engaging both the feet and the mind. Check out the site: www.thisishowwefly.net

Working through the year's backlog of audio and video recordings: Here's a clip from An Táin in Armagh Cathedral featuring Lorcán Mac Mathúna (vocals), Seán Mac an Fhirléinn (bass clarinet, live electronics), Martin Tourish (accordian), Eoghan Neff (fiddle) & Flaithrí Neff (pipes).