Concert
Francis Heery & Catherine Sikora

This evening, we bring into focus the music of three of our current and former artists in residence, while also celebrating the 40th anniversary of the Contemporary Music Centre, a longstanding partner of the CCI.

Francis Heery is an Irish improvisor, composer and sound artist based in Berlin. His music is inspired by science-fiction, occult philosophies and bio-aesthetics. Artist in residence at the CCI for the month of April (with the support of Contemporary Music Centre), Heery will perform Nettles in Lightning, a live electronic work based on Antonin Artaud's journey through Ireland in 1937. Artaud travelled to Galway, the Aran Islands and on to Dublin in possession of what he thought was the staff of Saint Patrick, on a mission to witness or perhaps bring about the apocalypse. Heery's work interweaves themes from Artaud's story with speculative bioacoustics, imagining Ireland's watchful fauna forming an arena in which Artaud's visionary quest would play out. Along with dancer Chloé Bernier and saxophonist Catherine Sikora.

Saxophonist, improviser and composer Catherine Sikora has devoted her life to researching the sound of air vibrating in a metal tube with her saxophones, a journey that has taken her from her native West Cork to Berlin, Paris, NYC and New Mexico. Finola Merivale is a renowned Irish composer of acoustic and electro-acoustic music, living in New York. They first met at the CCI during the summer of 2020, while both were artists in residence. Almost immediately after meeting, they started working together on a piece, des os, a work for improvised tenor saxophone with electronics and pre-recorded saxophones. The whole piece, including the recording, was created in just one month of intensive work, using the beautiful and resonant chapel at the CCI for the recordings. Des os literally translates as "the bones", and was inspired by the eeriness of the Parisian catacombs, with skeletons stacked up along the dark pathways, and long pandemic walks through various cemeteries. Both artists are delighted to be able to bring it home to the CCI for a public performance.

In partnership with CMC and the Institute for Ideas and Imagination (Columbia University)