Hearing is believing at Cork Sound Fair
chats to Cork Sound Fair founder Conor Ruane
CORK Sound Fair is a new leftfield arts and music event taking place this weekend. Founder Conor Ruane, 27, and originally from Mayo, has lived in Cork for two years and combines his work as an events organiser and promoter with his day-job as an aquatic ecologist.
A “sound fair” allows musicians, DJs, and producers to quite literally set out their audio stalls, Ruane says: “Rather than the traditional festival or concert, it’s a snapshot of what people are producing. Ireland was run on fairs back in the day: People would set up stalls and sell their goods. This is the audio equivalent of that.”
Fifteen Irish and international acts will perform short sets over two days. “The only consistent theme is a passion for sound, and it’s all live and with an electronic element. Expect synths, drum machines and laptops.”
“We have a sound-art element in the installations, and acts like Dreamcycles and Robert Curgenven definitely consider themselves sound art. “I would say there’s a subtlety to it: regular music is more formulaic, but sound art is pushing the boundaries of what you’d expect from music and it can also incorporate other things, like visuals. There’s very much the sense that a live exhibition is happening with you in the room.”
“Yes, definitely! Some people might think it’ll all be low-key, but it’s going to be very energetic. There’ll be lots of dance-y stuff: Autumns is post-punk electro, very upbeat and danceable; and Static, that’s John Hennessy from Cork club night Sunday Times, has taken music from his own record collection and added this dub/techno vibe to it.
“The first four acts in St Peter’s will be seated, so that’s a more low-rhythm thing and then the seating will be taken away, so people will be able to move around and dance to the more up-tempo stuff.”
Headline act Beatrice Dillon, a UK-based DJ and producer, will play her Irish debut in Cork City Gaol with a corresponding visual installation by artist Clíona Ní Laoi, AKA Clí, who has produced light shows for global underground YouTube channel Boiler Room.
“Beatrice is very much from a dance background. It’s really exciting to be able to host her in Cork; part of what we’re doing with Cork Sound Fair is exposing people to international acts they may not have been aware of.”
Cork-based Robert Curgenven is a classically trained organist who has released experimental electronic work on various record labels over the past decade.
“Robert manipulates really low bass frequencies that almost shape the air around you. We have a custom-built sound system that isn’t very loud, but which drives this constant wave of pressure and changes the physical feeling of the room. We’re really excited to have Robert on board.”
“Venue is everything,” Ruane says. Cork Sound Fair will be held in St Peter’s, a landmark former church and arts centre on North Main St, and in the atmospheric surroundings of the old Cork gaol, site of Cork’s first radio broadcast service and involuntary home to Countess Markiewicz for four months of her incarceration.
“St Peters’ has a really unique acoustic, which is a challenge, but some of the acts are going to work with it. It’s a cavernous, massive structure in the middle of the city and we’re lucky to have it. Cork Gaol was one of the first places to broadcast music in Cork, so it’s kind of cool that we’re making electronic music there.”
Cork Sound Fair takes place tomorrow and Saturday. For details, see corksoundfair.com
