Daniel Figgis

Self Isolating Compilation

Musicians, sound makers and artists isolated and creating. Solo sound works all recorded at home.

Volume 2 will bring the artists together.

I started coming up with the idea for the >>>>Self Isolating Compilation<<<<< just before the full lockdowns started – we were all being told it would be a good idea to stay at home, but the Governmental edicts hadn’t started. By the time the last tracks came in we are all forced to stay in, and find new ways of working.

For musicians this enforced isolation seems especially cruel, as music is, possibly above all, a social activity that explores not just the interaction between musicians, but also between musicians and an audience.
Even if I avoid the cliche of the falling tree in an empty forest, the idea of making music in a void seems strange.

These 85 (Eighty Five!) tracks are an attempted answer to the conundrum, all recorded in isolation at home, and almost all solo (the exceptions being three improvising musicians who share a house, and a father and son duo) throughout the world. There are tracks from UK, USA, France, Spain, Finland, Sweden, Ireland and the Canary Islands. The result is a kaleidoscope…

Released April 2, 2020

>>>>>Self Isolating Compilation<<<<< was put together by Richard Sanderson for Linear Obsessional. March/April 2020

The cover art is by Joanna McCormick
Dedicated to the memory of Kassia Flux.

An audio-visually supported ‘interrogation’ into the spectacular forty-year career of composer, producer, curator and intermedia artist Daniel Figgis by fellow artist Michael Boran with an eye to what happens next for Daniel, incorporating archive recordings, followed by audience Q&A.

“Daniel is a creative engine always pushing the boundaries of the field he engages in, drawing from all of the arts and harnessing it to his advantage.”
– Gerry Leonard, Musical Director, David Bowie

“Daniel Figgis was making post-classical/post-rock music years before either of those terms gained currency.”
– John Schaefer, WNYC: NEW SOUNDS

Image: Daniel Figgis at THE BATTLE oF SPEEDS (2011).
Photo by and © Barney

Ben Wilmott interviews Daniel Figgis in Issue 41 of Electronic Sound magazine. Daniel discusses his career to date and his involvement in Heresy Record’s latest release A Map of the Kingdom of Ireland.

“Echoing the interests of Heresy’s founder… Eric Fraad, many of the contributors here are active across disciplinary borders… Nevertheless, Fraad is a tour guide with an agenda, and on his map most roads lead to Daniel Figgis… credited as composer, musician or producer on seven of these tracks…”

“…Timothy Cream’s Crown of Wines, with Vincent Doherty, (is) an 11 minute dream-waltz that brushes listeners’ faces with feathery mellotron, flute and owl hoots before spiriting their subconscious into more absurdist realms of lurching chords and half-heard speech.”

“…2003’s Avant Garde Your Grille sees Deep Burial’s George Brennan and Richard Howard rework Figgis’s recordings… all jutting edges and cloudy, churning surfaces.”

A Map of the Kingdom of Ireland is Heresy Records’ sequel to the album On the Nature of Electricity & Acoustics curated by Daniel Figgis and released in 2013 to international critical acclaim.

Both albums are currently available from the Heresy shop as a CD bundle.

John Schaefer catches up with Daniel on New York Public Radio’s New Sounds to discuss, amongst other things, his involvement in Heresy Records’ latest compilation of Irish electro-acoustic music A Map of the Kingdom of Ireland.

The show features several tracks from the new compilation alongside some previously unheard material, including sound installation, a Skipper outtake Angel In The House, and On C from the upcoming solo album.

“Daniel Figgis was making post-classical/post-rock music years before either of those terms gained currency; his work continues to be a singular blend of the experimental and the engaging – purposeful, idea-driven, but always direct in its communicative ability.” – John Schaefer

LISTEN TO NEW SOUNDS #4092

“Figgis’s own 11-minute Timothy Cream’s Crown of Wines is a dazzling exercise in atmospheric fantasy…” – Michael Quinn, Classical Ear

“It is Daniel Figgis’ piece, Timothy Cream’s Crown of Wines, which really gets into a more freeform composition, referencing avant-garde music and perhaps Krautrock.” – Rudy Carrera, A Miscellany of Tasteful…

“A 1997 piece from Daniel Figgis, ‘Timothy Cream’s Crown of Wines’ is an absolute stunner.” – Karl Paloucek, Spill Magazine

“From the beatific dance-pop of Tóirse Ó Ríordáin to the avant garde bleeps and swirl of Daniel Figgis and the Kevin Ayers-inspired prog-rock meanderings of the supergroup GREETINGS, there’s much to immerse yourself in here.” – Duncan Seaman, The Yorkshire Post

“… the 11-minute ‘Timothy Cream’s Crown Of Wines’ is a thing of beauty.” – Electronic Sound

“It’s always great to hear a new track from Daniel Figgis and with ‘Timothy Cream’s Crown of Wines’ you get three! – Daniel’s best work, after just a few listens, has a wonderful familiarity and homemade feel about it.” – Stephen Rennicks, Abstract Analogue

A Map of the Kingdom of Ireland is Heresy Records’ sequel to the album On the Nature of Electricity & Acoustics curated by Daniel Figgis and released in 2013 to international critical acclaim.

Both albums are currently available from the Heresy shop as a CD bundle.

Compiled by label boss Eric Fraad, three years in the making, A Map of the Kingdom of Ireland is an extraordinary new compendium following in the wake of On The Nature of Electricity & Acoustics. It combines vital archival recordings with projections into what awaits this group of familiar, and some not so familiar, Irish musicians.

A Map of the Kingdom of Ireland features 9 world premiere recordings and will be released internationally on Heresy Records through Naxos on February 23 2018.

Leabhar na hAiséirghe (Book of the Resurrection) is an astonishing artefact, housed in the National Museum of Ireland (Collins Barracks in Dublin). Its creator, Art O’Murnaghan, is recognised as the greatest Artist-Scribe of 20th Century Ireland.

The recent RTÉ Raidió na Gaeltachta programme Art Ó Mornacháin agus Leabhar na hAiséirghe previews the first new music you have heard from his great-grandson in some time: a glimpse at Daniel’s soon to be unveiled ‘supergroup’: GREETINGS. Their “handsinmyhead” is described as an intoxication in 3 parts. This excerpt (Part 3) features Gerry Leonard  on electric guitar and Daniel on 12 string acoustic.

Recorded at Kettle Watch minor, Pussycat Row, and The Surgery
Produced by DF
Engineared by Paddy Hunt

The Proclaiming a Republic: the 1916 Rising exhibition at the National Museum of Ireland, Collins Barracks, contains a section dedicated to Art Ó Murnaghan and his creation of Leabhar na hAiséirghe / Book of the Resurrection.

Stephen Rennicks enthusiastically reviews On The Nature of Electricity & Acoustics on his website Abstract Analogue:

“On The Nature of Electricity & Acoustics is a CD and download compilation (curated by composer and artist Daniel Figgis) of various Irish electro-acoustic artists which came out last year. If you have any interest in this type of music, then this album is a perfect introduction and in fact is the only one of its type that I’m aware of. Thankfully Figgis knows his stuff in this department.

Electronic maverick Roger Doyle’s playful ‘Baby Grand’ from 1978 opens the album in a minimal fashion with programmed over-lapping piano runs and he returns again about the midway point under his Operating Theatre guise in a piano and electronics piece from 1982.

Deep Burial’s deeply narcotic ‘Glue Bag Lung’ is another standout track for me and comes just before Ian Wilson’s deeply moving and melancholic ‘Devotional 3’ which places violin on a bed of electronics. Pat Daly’s ‘Com-Plex’ reminds me of and could be seen to be responding to Roger Doyle’s opening piece in its arrangement and playfulness. Very engaging indeed.

It’s great to finally get to hear something by Vincent Doherty. I previously only knew of him as a longtime collaborator of Daniel Figgis. His ‘Snow din’ is a lovely way to spend 2 minutes of your time, as you add him to your list of artists from this collection to make an effort to hear more from. Like a number of the other artists here, Doherty works outside of the conventional context of a musician that plays live, releases albums etc, working as a composer and sound designer for theatre and radio.

Cathal Coughlan’s ‘Second City Bicycle Bounce’ (a “recomposition” of music by Daniel Figgis) is a curious instrumental from 2002 that keeps growing on me each time I hear it. He’s managed to weave some fairly unusual elements together that somehow continue to reveal new angles and sides to them you might not have heard at first listen.

The gtr/bass/drums of ‘Devilcock!’ by Princess Tinymeat announces the first and only rock out so far. An early Figgis project from 1986 it makes me want to hear more of their music for sure. The track sounds on the verge of crashing to a halt or spinning off to one side, which is not a bad thing in this case. A welcome unreleased instrumental track from Schroeder’s Cat, “Goodbye”, commissioned by Figgis for his “poisonhats” event, is the penultimate track before ‘Lucky’s Bad Day’ from Figgis’ Skipper (1994). This is still one of my all time favourite albums and this track still sounds so bright, so full of wonder and potential, and after so much time I expect it always will. A return to the familiar so, after an illuminating and thrilling journey in the company of artists who have long been pursuing and honing their own unique vision.”

Buy the iTunes release of On The Nature Of Electricity & Acoustics (features 12 additional tracks)
Buy the On The Nature Of Electricity & Acoustics CD

Daniel has written the score for Polish Theatre Ireland‘s play Foreign Bodies which opens in Project Arts Centre on 24 July.

Inspired by a true story, Foreign Bodies is the story of Adam, a member of the Solidarność (Solidarity) movement, who, after the political crisis of 1989, has a male-to-female sex change operation and becomes Ewa. As Ewa, she immediately has to struggle with the poverty, solitude and social rejection in a new capitalist country.

Performance information and tickets

24 July – 3 August ~ Tickets €14/12

Buy tickets from Project Arts Centre