UPDATES
NEW RELEASE
From Dublin post-punk pioneer STANO,
featuring Aidan Gillen, John Perry, Ian Lynch..
BEFORE MAY I WILL CHANGE
Lockdown was a strangely creative time. There was a lot going on and nothing going on, I found myself writing and gathering found sounds in the absence of access to the studio. I was forced to go back to my early ways of working before I had a studio when I created and gathered sounds using 2 tape recorders and layered my words on them. During this period many poems were written. I spent a lot of time editing until they started to resemble short poems, some of which I knew I’d like to record myself and others needed a different voice.
Aidan Gillen had recorded a story for my In Between Silence story collection and expressed an interest in another collaboration. I didn’t let him hear the backing tracks in advance, I didn’t want the music to influence his interpretation of the words. As an actor he seemed to recognise exactly what I was trying to express. It was a really interesting experience to hear someone else inhabit my words and deliver them almost like a character in a play.
LIVE PERFORMANCE
Dreams of a forgotten place
Suite for 2 pianos
The Lark Concert Hall, Balbriggan, November 2023
Dreams of a Forgotten Place (Suite for Two Pianos) is a visually immersive experience with a contemporary composition in three movements composed by legendary Irish artist / producer, STANO with Conor Linehan (Royal Shakespeare Company, Irish National Opera) and Billy Farrell (Deadeye Productions), to be performed by Conor Linehan and Lance Coburn (Sydney Symphony, RTE National Symphony and Hibernian Orchestras). This event was funded by the Arts Council / An Chomhairle Ealaíon.
DECODER LIVE
A 60 MINUTE LIVE MUSIC, FILM AND 3D PROJECTION/MAPPING EVENT.
Following the success of last years ‘UNSPOKEN’ event in Meeting House Square, Temple Bar, Stano brings ‘DECODER’ to the same venue, on Friday, September 5th.
Under the award winning, giant umbrellas in MHS, which create an amazing indoor / outdoor space in the City Centre, Stano presents DECODER, a one hour, Music, Film and 3D Projection experience.
Featuring, on Guitar, Sean Coleman, Jen Rabs and Niall O’Shea and on Drums, Simon Freedman, Johnny Boyle and Daz Oglesby.
DECODER is presented in association with Sony , TBCT, DCC and Screentime Shinawil.
UNSPOKEN EVENT
THIS EVENT WAS INSPIRED BY THE MUSIC FROM STANO’S ‘UNKNOWN DISTANCE’ ALBUM.
‘Unknown Distance’ by Irish post punk legend Stano features some of his finest work to date. Songs are by turns dynamic and reflective, propelled by stunning musicianship and perfectly textured arrangements. Yet unusually for such a cerebral work, ‘Unknown Distance’ still manages to retain a sense of playfulness; heart and head in harmony.
As ever with Stano, each song is the result of intensive collaboration. Regular players such as artist/guitarist Donald Teskey, cellist Kevin Murphy and pianist Conor Linehan infuse the arrangements with their own unique playing style. Yet the dynamics, texture and tone are unmistakably Stano. A renowned visual artist, Stano’s method of production echoes that of his paintings, with songs assembled from a palette of sounds, like paint applied to a canvas.
Unknown Distance could be the soundtrack for an imaginary existential thriller. A noirish trip through dim neon lit side streets, bristling with electric energy, peopled with lost souls, where the first cut is always the deepest. This is Stano bringing us on a trip through the contours of his mind – destination undetermined, distance unknown.
Tracks like ‘Marley Stipe‘, ‘Families That Walk Around Town‘ and ‘Unspoken‘ demonstrate that Stano’s unique gifts continue to develop and that 30 years after his debut he remains one of our most compelling and innovative artists.