The Lark Unending

‘The Lark Unending’ by David Donohoe.
Performed by David Donohoe (electronics), Susan Geaney (flutes) & David Lacey (percussion)

with special guest
Dennis McNulty

David Donohoe presents ‘The Lark Unending’, a new composition based on field-recordings of breeding Skylarks made earlier this year in the Glenasmole valley.

Composed for trio of Susan Geaney (flutes), David Lacey (percussion) and David Donohoe (electronics), the performers will be embedded in and responding to a diffusion soundscape originating from the songs of individual Skylarks, creating an intensely immersive, emotional and physical experience utilising a frequency spectrum from deep bass to glistening highs.

The Skylark’s song feels like liquid gold, shimmering to ground from above, the bird invisible against the sky. Closer listening reveals a dense and complex structure of sequential phrasing, repetition and mimicry, individual birds having their own vocabularies of phrases & rhythms from which they extemporise.

With Skylark numbers in significant decline through habitat loss, intensive farming practices, plantation forestry & exhaustion of bog vitality, ‘The Lark Unending’ is offered as both a monument to this particular time of catastrophic ecological decline and a call of hopeful defiance – a rallying call for us to engage actively with the biodiversity crisis.
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David Donohoe

David Donohoe is a composer, field-recordist, artist, live performer and improviser. His work operates at the intersection of instrumentation, synthesis, field-recording and processing. His practice involves scored works, electroacoustic performance and solo/collaborative improvisation. He has released on D1 Recordings, Dinzu Artefacts, Flaming Pines, Verz Imprint, Fort Evil Fruit, Mille Plateaux, Force- Inc, Fällt, Minimise and Studiomime.

Susan Geaney

Susan Geaney is a Composer, Improviser and Sound Artist from Co. Kerry She graduated with 1st class honours B.Mus degree and completed her Masters in Composition in UCC under the supervision of John Godfrey and Jesse Ronneau in 2010. In 2008, Susan studied under American composer Pauline Oliveros where she practiced deep listening and sonic mediation. Her sound practice is rooted in the exploration and expansion of 5 key components: listening; space; silence; awareness and intuition across various creative disciplines; music, field recording, movement, meditation, installation, poetry, film and art.

David Lacey

David Lacey works as a percussionist at the intersection of improvised/experimental & contemporary music since 1997. He has researched and developed a vocabulary of extended techniques for drums/percussion using preparations and live electronics, as well as utilising location/field recording & cassettes as part of his practice. He has composed works for recorded media, art installations and dance performance.

Presented by David Donohoe
Supported by The Arts Council