design and photography by Robin Parmar

Soundings presents:

Splice Girls (UK)

La Société des Amis du Crime (Ireland)

Diana Simpson (UK)

Manuella Blackburn (UK)

Stephen McCourt (Ireland)

Join us at 8pm on Thursday 24 September for the second in this season's Soundings events. This is a very special concert in cooperation with the Tweak Festival. The location will be the historic St. Munchin's Church on Church Street in Limerick.

The Splice Girls are Manuella Blackburn and Diana Simpson. Their laptop improvisations utilise tools built in Max/MSP to create messed up loops and shimmering soundscapes. They regularly perform at experimental music nights across Manchester. In 2007 they performed on the Sonic Ferry at the Sonic Arts Expo in Plymouth, and had their USA debut at the Atlantic Canter for the Arts in Florida.

Born in Glasgow, Diana Simpson studied at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama with Alistair MacDonald, where she was awarded a BA, PGDipMus, and MMus with distinction. She is currently a PhD. student at the University of Manchester (UK), supervised by David Berezan, and funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council and a Dewer Arts Award.

Manuella Blackburn was born in London in 1984 and is now living in Manchester. She gained a Distinction with a Masters in Electroacoustic Music at the University of Manchester in 2006 and was awarded the Peter J. Leonard Composition Prize. In September 2006 she began a PhD. at the University of Manchester and is now studying with Dr. Ricardo Climent.

La Société des Amis du Crime are Paul Hegarty and Vicky Langan, who started performing together earlier this year when Paul guested on Vicky's solo project Wolflinge. Vicky Langan also performs in Female Orphan Asylum, and curates the Black Sun monthly "wierdo music night" in Cork's Granary Theatre, which they jointly organise. Paul Hegarty also performs in safe, and is author of Noise/Music: A History. Soundings is delighted to feature the debut performance of this collaboration.

After being involved in the production of electronic and alternative guitar music, Steve McCourt completed his Masters in Music Technology with First Class Honours in 2007. He is currently engaged in a PhD. in Electroacoustic Composition on "Aesthetics of New Media and the Sonic Image in Electroacoustic Music" at the University of Limerick. He also composes for multimedia projects.

"1" is composed primarily from the sounds of mobile phone interference -- the sound that you hear when you are close to a television, radio or loudspeaker and your phone is about to ring. This material is integrated with computer-generated sounds and other sounds such as fireworks. The choice of material explores gestures and textures that are chaotic by nature. "1" essentially creates order from chaos.

Soundings is a continuing performance series designed to open the senses to new forms of music, sound art and media interaction. It is sponsored by the CCMCM at the University of Limerick and features a state of the art sound system.

Admission is only 10 euros (5 euros concession) at the door. University of Limerick students are free with student ID. Space is limited: first come, first served.