We've been scheming, plotting and coming up with all sorts of good stuff with two great young Irish composers recently and wanted to make it official to you all. 

So we've put bunk beds in the spare room and Sam Perkin and Barry O'Halpin are officially in the Crash house.

You're going to see performances of their work, commissions, recordings and we will be supporting them in their practices wherever they want to go. It's all part of Crash Ensemble’s commitment to the careers of young Irish composers but also to making great work happen.

Check out what the guys are up to - 

Sam Perkin

Blending the worlds of street skateboarding with contemporary music, Sam has recently completed a large-scale work for Crash entitled Grey Area commissioned by Engage Arts Festival. 

"I will try to share with the audience something that is like an unwritten language among skateboarders: the way we see space, architecture and habitat, which is strikingly different to the way most people do." –Sam Perkin

He is also composing five pieces inspired by his love of linguistics, including a piece for solo cello based on the Cork accent. We premiered the first of his linguistics pieces Word for Word for solo snare (with chopsticks) and tape (voices in 6 languages), alongside his PIM, at Sundays at Noon at the Hugh Lane Gallery, Dublin in April this year. 

We will be performing further premieres by Sam in Autumn 2018 as well as throughout 2019, and release recordings of his work during our 2019/2020 season. 
samperkincomposer.com

Barry O'Halpin

Barry first got involved with Crash back in 2014 when his piece Lethargarian was selected for Free State, our open submission concert. His work featured again in 2015-16 as part of our Born in the 80s Irish tour and we performed his trio Lipids at New Music Dublin 2016 with Barry as guitarist. 

Since then Barry has been regularly on stage with us as guitarist, and recently became an official member of Crash.

He's currently working on a sprawling multi-sectional composition for the ensemble, drawing direct and abstract inspiration from evolutionary processes and soundscape ecology, and exposing the contrasts and uncanny commonalities between ‘wild’ sounds in nature and human-made music and machinery. His exploratory approach to the guitar provides connective tissue for this work which unites Crash's affinity for vivid sonic colours with the ensemble's powerful rhythmic drive.

We will premiere works from Barry in Autumn 2018, throughout 2019 and 2020, and release a recording of his work in 2020. 
barryohalpin.com

Pass the marmalade lads...