{"id":19785,"global_id":"aras-eanna.ie\/en\/?id=19785","global_id_lineage":["aras-eanna.ie\/en\/?id=19785"],"author":"4","status":"publish","date":"2026-06-10 12:11:21","date_utc":"2026-06-10 12:11:21","modified":"2026-06-10 12:11:43","modified_utc":"2026-06-10 12:11:43","url":"https:\/\/aras-eanna.ie\/en\/event\/maria-somerville-olan-monk\/","rest_url":"https:\/\/aras-eanna.ie\/en\/wp-json\/tribe\/events\/v1\/events\/19785","title":"Maria Somerville + Olan Monk","description":"

Friday, 19 June, 20:30, \u00c1ras \u00c9anna<\/strong><\/p>\n

Tickets \u20ac30\/25<\/em><\/p>\n

(MS photographed by C\u00e1it Fahy, OM by Charlie Doherty)<\/p>\n

By the time Irish musician Maria Somerville started writing Luster, her landmark label debut for 4AD, she had lived away from her native Connemara for quite some time. Having grown up amongst the wild, mountainous terrain of Galway\u2019s rural west coast, she later relocated to Dublin, where she patiently developed an atmospheric dream pop signature inspired by the landscape of her youth \u2013 a spellbinding soundworld of gusting ambient electronics, ethereal guitar strums, sparse percussion, and hushed lyrical vignettes. In 2019, this culminated in All My People, a self-released LP steeped in reverb, nostalgia and a yearning for home that won praise from discerning press and listeners alike.<\/p>\n

It was upon returning to Connemara, in a house near where she was raised overlooking one of the country\u2019s largest lakes, Lough Corrib, that work commenced on the songs that would eventually become Luster, an album that illuminates Somerville\u2019s music anew, pushing it forward in both sound and spirit. Where All My People conveyed memories and melancholic longing with misty slowcore balladry, these 12 tracks show us an artist who\u2019s more assured in the path her life has taken, and the person she\u2019s become in the process. As she sings in \u2018Trip\u2019 \u2013 \u201cI can see more clearly
\nthan I could before. I know now what\u2019s true for me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Invigorated by her surroundings and emboldened by her community, Somerville found a renewed sense of creative energy upon returning to home soil. It provided \u201cfertile ground\u201d for free-flowing recording sessions in her small living room studio, where she stitched together demos that were then fleshed out with friends and collaborators, and later mixed by the renowned New York-based engineer Gabriel Schuman. Contributors included producers J. Colleran, Brendan Jenkinson and Diego Herrera (aka Suzanne Kraft), as well as Lankum\u2019s Ian Lynch, whose uilleann pipe drones you can hear in \u2018Violet\u2019, and Margie Jean Lewis, whose violin bows reverberate through the ambient haze of \u2018Flutter\u2019. Sessions with musicians Henry Earnest and Finn Carraher McDonald (aka Nashpaints) helped \u201ctie it all together\u201d, while contributions from friends Roisin Berkley and Olan Monk enshrined the companionship they\u2019ve shared since Somerville returned to Connemara.<\/p>\n

Listeners have had a window into Somerville\u2019s world every Monday and Tuesday morning since 2021 via her beloved Early Bird Show on NTS Radio, where her dawn chorus selections range from blissful ambient and shoegaze to traditional Irish folk songs. Since signing to 4AD that same year, Somerville has toured with her label mates Dry Cleaning, and released two covers for the label\u2019s 40th anniversary celebrations \u2013 taking on Nancy Sinatra\u2019s \u2018Kinky Love\u2019 and Air Miami\u2019s \u2018Sea Bird\u2019. With the release of Luster, she has signaled the arrival of a new era that will see her play
\naround the world in 2025 accompanied by a live band. Rest assured though, no matter where Somerville goes, she\u2019ll take a piece of home with her \u2013 a living, breathing, timeless essence you can sense in every note, as clear as the air by the Corrib.<\/p>\n

Olan Monk<\/strong> is a musician, performer, and writer from Conamara, Ireland.<\/p>\n

Their second album, Songs for Nothing<\/em>, is out now on AD 93.<\/p>\n

Written after Monk\u2019s return to Ireland\u2019s west coast, the record draws from sean-n\u00f3s singing and Sin\u00e9ad O\u2019Connor\u2019s confessional lyricism, blending Irish tradition with experimental gothic art rock. Through shifting textures of shoegaze, cloud rap, and slow airs, the album evokes Conamara\u2019s rugged landscape and a deep sense of place. Featuring contributions from Maria Somerville, Michael Speers, Dylan Kerr, and others, Songs for Nothing<\/em> reimagines Irish song traditions with raw, heartfelt intensity. Monk dedicates it \u201cto Conamara and all who have called it home.\u201d<\/p>\n

Their practice involves experimental and popular songwriting, performing as a solo act and in collaboration with other musicians, including recordings and performances with Actress, Ashley Paul, Elvin Brandhi, James K, Maria Somerville, Michael Speers, Moin, Princ\u20acss and Shampain. They co-founded C.A.N.V.A.S. with Lugh O\u2019Neill as an events series and record label, established in 2018 to give collective agency to an increasingly dispersed community of artists.<\/p>\n

Past releases include Love\/Dead (2020) and Auto Life (2021) on C.A.N.V.A.S. and Dubplate 08 (2022) on AD 93. They contributed the single \u2018Surf\u2019 to Scenic Route\u2019s The Road Less Travelled Vol. 2 compilation (2024) and feature on the single \u2018Guess It\u2019s Wrecked\u2019 from Moin\u2019s third album You Never End (2024), released on AD 93. Past performances include appearances at Rewire, The Hague; Ais\u00e9ir\u00ed in Leisureland, Galway; National Concert Hall, Dublin; the Sonic Arts Research Centre, Belfast; cafe OTO, London; Barbican Hall, London; Institute for Contemporary Art, London; PAF Olomouc; EOS crossings, Frankfurt and throughout Ireland, England and continental Europe.<\/p>\n

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