Happy St. Patrick's Day! This special features three interviews with artists from various corners of the world. We speak to Catherine Rhatigan (a harpist originally from Sligo but based in Switzerland), Dan Mulqueen (a handpan artist based in New Jersey, USA) and Stephen O'Dowd, Sligo-based multi-instrumentalist and son of previous podcast guest, Seamie O'Dowd. The three artists discuss their music, their ongoing projects, present some pieces of their own and finally, collaborate remotely on a piece together.
Show Notes
Luke talks to Catherine Rhatigan about her ongoing musical projects and work. Having been involved in various projects of Catherine's together over the last few years, Luke and Catherine aren't strangers to each other. Catherine's roots are in Sligo but she is now based near Zürich in Switzerland. Luke and Catherine discuss her upcoming musical endeavours, how the pandemic has affected her both personally and professionally, how this St. Patrick's Day might be different from others, her work on the collaborative piece featured at the end of the podcast and her own work as a composer. We hear The Atlantic Orchestra Project perform one of Catherine's compositions from the show "Cannon in Sea", a piece titled "The Inishmurray March".
Kieran chats to New Jersey native Dan Mulqueen. Dan has a deep interest in traditional Irish folk music, an interest borne out of the deep Irish roots on both sides of his family. A percussionist and rhythm maker by trade, Dan is no stranger to a melody; he has mastered the handpan drum, a new instrument that has only existed in its current form since the early noughties that combines rhythmic and melodic sound output to create an extremely unique instrument. Dan and Kieran discuss how they first encountered each other, the technicals of the handpan drum and how it's played, Dan's setup where he uses more than one handpan drum, Dan's gigging life and his work with Irish music, his local St. Patrick's Day traditions as well as his work as an original artist, work which has been impacted by the ongoing pandemic. We hear the title track from Dan's latest album, an electronica track called "Real Life" with acoustic handpan as the lead instrument.
Rory sits down for a virtual chat with Stephen O'Dowd. Although he is our youngest guest on the show so far, he already possesses musical wisdom and technical ability far beyond his years. After a brief chat about surfing, Rory asks Stephen about the multitude of instruments he plays, the emotion and musicality he brings to his interpretations of various songs and how he approached the collaborative piece that we're featuring at the end of this episode. Being the last to put his stamp on the piece, Stephen had the benefit of context that Catherine and Dan did not in that he could hear the rest of the piece and try to figure out how to best fit himself into it. Stephen has put together a version of Thom Moore's "Turn The Corner" for the show today and we get a listen to that at the end of this segment.
Finishing off the show, we take a listen to the collaborative piece, a version of "Sí Bheag, Sí Mhór" featuring Catherine Rhatigan on the harp, Dan Mulqueen on the handpan drum and Stephen O'Dowd on fiddle, mandolin and guitar.