Basque rapper Zekan Askalari’s latest track ‘Erantzun’ is directed by Yaser Akbari, an Afghan asylum-seeker from Iran. It was produced by Leah Rustomjee while volunteering for ReFocus Media Labs an NGO on the Greek island of Lesvos that trains asylum seekers in filmmaking, photography and journalism skills. ‘Erantzun’, is a rap song in the ancient European language of … Read more
Music is a language and languages are musical. My life has always been about that: an exploration of these two elements and how they are deeply connected and influenced by one another: music and languages perpetually coexisting in balance. I grew up in Milan, Italy, and as a child I remember constantly being exposed to … Read more
Do you know the feeling of wanting to discover secrets that aren’t being spoken aloud? For a while I thought it was an esoteric way of preserving knowledge. I imagined there were savants to seek out, to turn to. And in search of traces, I became passionate about chasing and searching for the threads of … Read more
Foreword Sometime in early 2022, in the middle of the fourth or fortieth wave of the corona virus, I got a message from my old friend, Stefano Schiavocampo. He told me that he was editing for a magazine in Dublin and he’d like me to contribute. “Me?” I thought, “What would anyone need to hear … Read more
The process of discovering sounds has always been an aspect of music I’ve been connected to, even when I wasn’t aware of its potential and possibilities. During childhood and adolescence, I experimented with instruments, recorded and improvised. It was a somewhat chaotic, intuitive process without pretensions. In my early teens my parents offered me a … Read more
Of New Lands and Turning Points… “You can play! Just take it easy, play slow. Play for a few minutes and then give it a break… there’s no panic!” I was recently asked by one of my composing mentors to think about and summarise what I’ve done as a musician and composer so far. So … Read more
I felt myself still reliving a past that was no longer anything more than the history of anther person. Marcel Proust, In Search of Lost Time. I It got to a point that whenever I searched through a friend’s record collection when staying with them it stared right back at me: The Waterboys’ Fisherman’s Blues. … Read more
Promoter, venue and band manager, Conal Lee reflects on the experience of musicians over the course of lockdowns, and considers the ongoing difficulities for musicians and venues in Dublin, as well as the challenges of dealing with new controls. How have you survived through the lockdown? Having an enforced break, albeit as a result of … Read more
I still don’t know musically where I belong. Being classically trained as a pianist, but listening also to Jazz, World, Indi Pop, Nordic, Heavy Metal or Ambient music, and loving them all, I keep losing myself in whichever direction I go. I wouldn’t say I want to compose Heavy Metal, but I am influenced by … Read more
I sit at the piano and a melody flows smoothly from my mind. I think “How great,” and quickly write it down, then continue playing and writing, playing and writing. Feels like I came up with something special this time. I become emotional with excitement and am very pleased. Then a moment passes, and nothingness. … Read more