Phil Kieran and White Noise Sound: Beyond Borders
Commissioned by:
Oh Yeah Music Centre, Swansea Creative Hun and Welsh Music Foundation
Event date:
October/November 2011
Find out more by visiting:
This Beyond Borders opportunity will see Belfast Composer and DJ Phil Kieran working with Swansea experimental group White Noise Sound. It will deliver three pieces of developing music. Each act will take a pre-existing idea from the other party and turn it into a new piece of work. On the third composition, both acts will meet in the middle, originating something completely different. In total, 15-20 minutes of music will be created. This will be followed up by live performances in Belfast and Swansea, and accompanied by a CD of the music in question. The live concerts will also allow the acts to perform pre-existing work, but the new music will be at the heart of it.
A message from the commission organisations:
The success of our Beyond Borders application is the chance for two creative and adventurous parties to test each other and to deliver some challenging music. Phil Kieran was chosen to be the musical lead in this project on the basis of his international reputation, his impressive catalogue of work and his open-minded approach to new ideas. He has been commissioned to do many remixes and artistic collaborations in the past, but the nature of this funding allows for more freedom and is less constrained in terms of commercial expectations. Swansea act White Noise Sound have just released their debut album, produced by Pete Kember of the influential act Spacemen 3.
White Noise Sound say:
“We’re confident the collaboration with Phil will create some very interesting results. We’re looking forward to this.”
Phil Kieran says: “My aim for this project is to create new music and a new development. It will be a true collaboration and a meeting of minds. After hearing White Noise Sound, I am confident we will find endless amounts of common ground. Even though on paper we look to come from different musical backgrounds, I think our musical taste will be surprisingly similar. For that reason I think this should get us some interesting results. I am genuinely looking forward to see how this all sounds when we are doing the showcases. It is very exciting already.”
Phil Kieran is an electronic composer, a DJ, music producer, remixer and recording artist from Belfast. He made his reputation as the resident DJ at Shine in Belfast before playing at venues across the world. He has released numerous records that have received airtime on Radio 1 and featured on mix CDs by DJs such as Carl Cox, Pete Tong, Slam and on various Global Underground mixes.
He has recorded for the labels DMC, Skint, Yoshitoshi, Shine and Cocoon. In 2002 he was awarded the Best Dance Act award at the BBC Hot Press awards. In 2005 he formed a band called Alloy Mental, a collaboration with Irish singer-songwriter Martin Corrigan. They released four 12″s and followed this up with the June 2007 release of the album We Have Control. They also played a live set on Annie Mac’s Radio 1 birthday show. A set mixed by Kieran was featured on BBC’s Essential Mix on April 15, 2007. His debut solo record, Shh was released in 2009.
White Noise Sound assembled in Swansea, Wales in 2006 and immediately made the conscious decision to shut themselves off from all around them in favour of conjuring their own particular wall-of-sound – at once relentlessly pulsating and blissed-out.
After honing their craft across the UK and through Europe – where they have supported the likes of The Warlocks, Spectrum, Mark Gardener (Ride) and the Super Furry Animals and shared the stage with members and ex-members of Spacemen 3, Spiritualized and the Brian Jones Town Massacre – the band completed their debut album in March 2010, with the help of Pete Kember (Spacemen 3, Spectrum and E.A.R) and magician Cian Ciaran (Super Furry Animals). A month later, WNS signed to US label Alive Records whose back-catalogue, amongst many others, includes releases from The Black Keys, Iggy Pop and James Willamson, T-Model Ford and The Soledad Brothers.
Find out more:
White Noise Sound: http://www.whitenoisesound.net/
Oh Yeah Music Centre Belfast: www.ohyeahbelfast.com
Welsh Music Foundation: http://www.welshmusicfoundation.com/
Swansea Creative Hub: http://swanseacreativehub.com/