Laoise Nolan, a 16-year-old Galway City transition year student, has just released her debut CD entitled “In the Pink” in an effort to raise much needed funds for Mayo Pink Ribbon. The album features a mix of Laoise’s original works along with some covers and Laoise is joined on the album by musician friends Steve Wall, Jimmy Higgins, Stephen James and Frank Kilkelly.
The motivation behind the album was Laoise’s desire to do something for breast cancer research in light of her mother’s diagnosis of the disease and successful completion of treatment. All proceeds from the sale of the album are going to Mayo Pink Ribbon who have raised over €268,000 for The National Breast Cancer Research Institute at NUI Galway, where three research scientists are employed full-time as a result.
The CD is available in local Galway City shops and from Mayo Pink Ribbon, and is due to be launched soon in venues to be announced in Galway, Inishbofin, Clifden, Dublin and Derry.
Irish composer, Dean Valentine, has just scored the official trailer for the Paul Greengrass directed feature film, “Captain Phillips”, starring Tom Hanks. The film, which will hit cinemas later this year, tells the true story of Captain Richard Phillips and the 2009 hijacking by Somali pirates of the US-flagged MV Maersk Alabama, the first American cargo ship to be hijacked in two hundred years.
This is not the first feature film trailer for Dean. Last year, he scored the US trailer music for Ridley Scott’s, “Prometheus”, which has had over 6 million YouTube hits. He has also composed music for “Ringer”, starring Sarah Michelle Gellar, and Disney series, “Tales of Friendship with Winnie the Pooh”.
RTÉ lyric fm is pleased to announce that it will award bursaries of €800 each to Sebastian Adams (Dublin) and Darragh Kearns-Hayes (Cork) to compose a 5-8 minute work for the RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra. Supported by the Irish Music Rights Organisations (IMRO), the award will include mentoring during the compositional process by Linda Buckley, RTÉ lyric fm’s Composer in Residence, a workshop with RTÉ NSO Principal Musicians facilitated by conductor Gavin Maloney and a recording of the new work by the RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra.
This is a unique opportunity for young composers and Linda Buckley is looking forward to working with Sebastian and Darragh, saying: Writing for such large-scale forces can be a daunting process, it’s a marriage of logistics and creativity and I am delighted to have the chance to guide the bursary winners in their first orchestral commission. The final works will be recorded and broadcast on RTÉ lyric fm’s new music show, Nova presented by Bernard Clarke on Sunday nights
This is the second year that RTÉ lyric fm has award bursaries to young composers supported by the Irish Music Rights Organisation. In 2011 Enda Bates and Seán Clancy worked with Linda Buckley and both have subsequently gone on to secure many more orchestral commissions and premieres for their work.
Now back home in Ireland, formed in Korea & via Montreal, Saint John The Gambler, enjoyed an impressive 2011 performing at numerous festivals including The Electric Picnic, Knockanstockan, Spirit of Folk and Liberties Festival together with residencies at Whelans and Shebeen Chic, in Dublin.
Saint John The Gambler’s second album, “Five Miles To Vaudeville” goes on official release on Friday 17th May.
Saint John the Gambler is an original Alt-Folk band with a dance-inducing spirit. With Mark Baker at the helm, this Dublin-based band has melded sounds from by-gone eras and distant lands with modern songwriting, taking in influences from Klezmer, Mariachi, Old-Time Jazz, Latin and Vaudeville to create a bluesy gypsy piracy.
Something to behold, the line up includes trumpet, violin, double bass, drums, congas, piano, banjo, guitar and vocals. They have the fluidity and music to entertain every listener; the feedback from their shows confirms this to be the reality!
The midlands of Ireland may not be the first place you consider when you think about slick
dancepop music. But Ms Hazel may be about to change all that.
Her debut single “You cannot break my heart” is a shimmering slice of electronic pop complete with soaring synths, jagged club bassline, and an annoyingly catchy melody. Influenced by a broad range of musical styles from R’n’B to 80s electronica, Ms Hazel’s music stands out from the singer-songwriter tracks of her contemporaries.
Unashamedly pop, and with a stylised, futuristic CG video, the single is available for the iTunes store from 24th May.
‘Songs From The Furnace Of Life’ is the new Double CD set just released by Tony Floyd Kenna. Disc One features Tony solo exploring life, death and existence in ten new songs. Co-writes with Valerie Bowe (Dublin), Cornelia Kindlinger (Germany) and Davina Brady (Dublin) are included. The idea of ‘The Furnace Of Life’ arose from the vision of the songsmith creating and moulding songs in and of the reflected heat of life, akin to a blacksmith in a forge….
Disc two comprises eighteen tracks, covers of Tony’s songs, collaborations and alternate versions. Five new tracks co written with Jed McConkey of Northern Ireland are performed here by Jed. Among the truly international cast you will also find Ed Dk (England), Wanman Shau (Dublin), Nate Logston (USA), Ciaran Brennan (Dublin), Greg Clifford (Dublin), Warren Newton (Australia), Liam Oragh (Dublin), Rhiannah Warm (Northern Ireland), James Lindsay (Dublin), Brian Aherne (Dublin), Chris Riley (England), Ricky Leonard (USA), Murray McDowell (Northern Ireland) & Geoff Bennett (England).
‘Songs From The Furnace Of Life’ is now available on Tony’s own label, Razor Blade Records.
David Burke is thrilled to be releasing his new 4-track EP ‘Clothes on the Floor’ via iTunes on May 24th. The EP follows his No 1 single from November 2012, “Love Hate”.
David has teamed up with some really exciting names for four tracks on the new EP:
- Chris Elliott, Amy Winehouse’s string orchestrator on ‘Back to Black’
- Paddy Casey, his friend & contemporary with whom he worked on the title track
- Fellow Kildare band Miracle Bell (co-producers of track 2 – ‘Without You’)
- Adam Kviman, producer of Eagle Eye Cherry’s ‘Save Tonight’.
To coincide with the release David, joined by his band, is holding a celebratory ‘EP Party’ gig in Dublin’s ‘Grand Social’ on Wednesday, May 29th. Doors 8pm. Tickets €5.
With two hugely successful sell-out shows already under his belt in recent months, the ‘EP Party’ promises to be a cracker!
David has teamed up once more with video producer, Killian O’Sullivan of YOU4REELProductions who directed the video for the No 1 single ‘Love Hate’. The new video will feature Kelly Gough, ‘Kate’ from the popular RTÉ television series RAW. News on the release of the ‘Clothes on the Floor’ video will be posted on www.facebook.com/davidburkelive!
With his ‘Clothes on the Floor’ EP, David hopes to follow on from the success of his debut single ‘Love Hate’ which went straight in at No.1 in the i-Tunes singer/songwriter charts knocking Ed Sheeran off the top spot!
Based in Co. Kildare, David has travelled from Dublin to New York to LA as a busking musician.
He has shared the stage with some outstanding artists. These include – Declan O’Rourke, Wallis Bird, Paddy Casey, Alabama 3 & Hothouse Flowers amongst others.
Happy with the collection of songs he had written, David felt the time was right to set about creating his own album.
He wanted to record an album that was bursting in colour – one that would do justice to chronicling the madness of his 20’s!
Working with numerous incredible musicians & taking in recordings from Wales (Rockfield Studios), London, Dublin, Kildare & Sweden, there is an eclectic blend of flavours to be found!
‘Clothes on the Floor’ is a 4-song collection taken from his debut album – ‘Where Colours Swim.’ The album is pencilled for release later this year.
West of Ireland based singer/songwriter David Dee Moore has just launched his new CD titled ‘The sun, the moon, the stars… and other moving objects’ in Ireland on his own independent ‘Carrabawn’ label in CD format available on his website www.daviddeemoore.com. David Dee, originally from Belfast, is returning with a stunning collection of original songs that cross over from a country roots hybrid mix to catchy contemporary Irish melodies. Each song is delicately arranged with some of Ireland’s finest musicians hand-picked to play on the project.
‘I grew up playing with most of the people on the recording in various bands while learning my trade in Ireland. This is a collection of the many different types of music that have influenced me that all ultimately stem from my Irish roots.’
The CD is engineered and co-produced by Donal O’Connor of ‘At First Light’ fame and features Nicky Scott (Van Morrison) on double bass, Paul Harden on guitar, Peter McKinney (Waterboys) on drums, John McCullough (Waterboys) on keyboards, Neil Martin on ‘cello and Colin Henry on dobro, to name but a few.
David Dee started off as a bass player in the Belfast punk band ‘The Ex-Producers’ and regularly played with various local folk and rock bands culminating in the creation of ‘The Loose Connections’ with Niamh Parsons and John McSherry in 1991. He part wrote and arranged the ‘Loosely Connected’ album with Greentrax Records in Edinburgh and produced and wrote the majority of the tracks on the ‘Loosen up’ album for the USA label Green Linnet. He settled in Westport Co. Mayo in 1998 where he now regularly plays in Matt Molloy’s (Chieftains) bar.
David Dee gained a renewed taste for writing and production when he recorded his highly praised 12 track CD called ‘The Almighty Warrior’ for his USA tour in 2010. It was never released in Ireland but will be available to download for the first time later in the year.
UNIT ONE is the debut album by ‘Alien-Pop’ duo NANU NANU, who are are GLITTERFACE (aka Galway siren LAURA SHEERAN) and MIRRORMAN (aka MARC AUBELE). Their unique and diverse ten-track album, which was recorded in Dublin and mixed by ROB KIRWAN (PJ Harvey, Glasvegas, Depeche Mode), will be released on May 31. This innovative electro album is accompanied by a comic book featuring the adventures of Nanu Nanu in various locations and times in Earth’s history. Track five, The Drop, features LA rapper Steve Liriks.
The album launch will take place in Dublin on Thursday May 30 at 6.30pm as part of Tower Records’ Live at Madison. The same evening Nanu Nanu will play live at Whelan’s in Wexford Street.
Little Green Cars have recorded an exclusive EP for deezer.com to coincide with the release of their critically acclaimed debut album. The four-track EP includes three songs from Absolute Zero and a cover of the Bruce Springsteen classic ‘I’m on Fire’.
Laoise Nolan, a 16-year-old Galway City transition year student, has just released her debut CD entitled “In the Pink” in an effort to raise much needed funds for Mayo Pink Ribbon. The album features a mix of Laoise’s original works along with some covers and Laoise is joined on the album by musician friends Steve Wall, Jimmy Higgins, Stephen James and Frank Kilkelly.
