Metronome: Ordnance Survey (Neil O'Connor) Performing Nomos: Ó Riada Reimagined

16 March 2023 20:30

Ordnance Survey (Neil O’Connor) with guest Sharon Phelan.

Composer Sean Ó Riada (1931-71) built the foundations of Irish art music by extending traditional music via both classical and folk music. Ordnance Survey’s Nomos: Ó Riada Reimagined uses compositional processes within the field of Spectral Music, where decisions are often informed by sonographic representations and mathematical analysis of sound spectra. Such music(s) might not be initially apparent to the ear and historically, innovations within acoustics and psychoacoustics have directly informed these musical possibilities. Nomos: Ó Riada Reimagined uses technology as a mode of expression and it is hoped that this variation adds to the language of experimental electronic music in Ireland.

Electronic music composer Neil O‘Connor has been making electronic music for the past 24 years, most notably under Somadrone. Ordnance Survey is a collaborative project and attempts to fuse the worlds of electronica, new music, jazz, improvisation and with modular synthesizers. Relative Phase (2019) features collaborations from Sean Mac Erlaine, Linda Buckley, Kate Ellis, John Mc Entire (Tortoise) while Ampere (2020) features Donal Lunny and Cormac MacDiarmada (Lankum). During the lockdown, Field Work (2021) was completed during lockdown and featured field recordings made in Dublin. Nomos: Ó Riada Reimagined (2022), is a reworking of Ó Riada’s work for electronics and pedal steel (David Murphy).

Sharon Phelan is a Dublin-based artist, writer and musician specialising in digital media and sound. Her practice researches resonance and poetics of place, often in site-responsive and collaborative projects. Her ongoing project, Vocal Artefacts, explores ways of listening and expanded notions of voice through artistic research, field recordings and sound essays.

Presented by NCH and Matthew Nolan Music.

Composer Neil O'Connor spoke to CMC's Jonathan Grimes in episode #77 of amplify, sharing insights into the production of NOMOS: Ó RIADA REIMAGINED, listen back here.