Mark O'Leary (musician)

Mark O'Leary is a Cork born based Guitarist, Author, Electronic Music composer. He was educated at Musicians Institute in Los Angeles. The release of numerous CDs in the past 3 or 4 years has helped him gain a growing following not just in Ireland but abroad as well. His music is released on Leo records, Aucourant, Ayler, FMR, Creative Sources, Cleanfeed, TIBProd Italy, Re:konstruKt record labels.

Levitation with Tomasz Stanko and Billy Hart has received global praise and received 4 stars in Penguin guide to Jazz. His CD Awakening with Steve Swallow and Pierre Favre has also been very well received. His CD On The Shore on Cleanfeed was in freejazz stef top 10 CDs of the year and Ron Steed of IMC voted it his favourite CD of the 2007. Støj was number three in one of the best of 2011 top five list in Freejazz Stef. His CD St Fin Barre's recorded in St Fin Barre's Cathedral in Cork has also been well received. His CD with Cuong Vu and Tom Rainey Waiting, which is a tribute to Irish Writer Samuel Beckett received 5 stars from Freejazz stef and strong reviews from BBC and The Guardian.[1] The CD Television with Han Bennink on Ayler records has also been held as a serious statement in the evolution of guitar/drum duos. His duo with Sunny Murray also on Ayler has been widely praised also. He is also an electronic artist composing soundscapes that can be described as post-industrial ambient /Landscape three have been released on Portuguese label Creative Sources Skyshifter, Fabrikraum and 4 Urban Landscapes, the latter features environmental sounds from Cork City Centre, dialect/dialogue, stonecutting and poetry. He has performed in over 30 countries, in some of the most prestigious venues and festivals, including Kennedy Center, North Sea Jazz Festival, Knitting Factory, Tonic, Vortex, The Loft and Athens Euro-Jazz.

O'Leary specializes in post-jazz music but has also performed Norwegian and Swedish folk music with Nils Okland and Mats Eden and worked with electronic artist Gunter Muller and performed his contemporary classical works with Cikada string quartet. He has toured Europe as a member of Paul Bleys trio and played with King Crimson drummer Bill Bruford, Jack DeJohnette, Peter Erskine, Joey Baron, Sunny Murray Tony Buck and Han Bennink. O'Leary's CDs have received favourable reviews from the British magazine Jazzwise, Downbeat, allaboutjazz, "the Wire", Sunday Tribune and The Guardian. Mark also has the distinction of having played in duo with Paul Bley, Bobo Stenson and Matthew Shipp He has also performed with Percussionists Terje Isungset, Alex Cline, zev, Alexander Tarasov, Hans-Kristian Kjos Sørensen and Senol Kucukyildirim He has also performed with trumpeters Kenny Wheeler, Cuong Vu, Tomasz Stanko, Thomas Heberer, Axel Dörner and Jeff Kaiser He has recorded and played with Tortoise drummer John Herndon in a trio with Matt Lux on a fine Leo records release Radio Free Europa. He has also played with Anders Jormin, Palle Danielsson, Michael Formanek, Arild Andersen Lars Danielsson Slava Ganelin and Henri Texier He has toured the Former Yugoslavia as a member of the Vasil Hadzimanov group He has performed in Poland with Tomasz Szukalski, Mihal Miskiewich, Marcin Oles and Barlomiej Oles He has played in a trio with the Akamoon rhythm section of Stephane Galland and Michel Hatzigeorgiu. He has worked with some of the major voices of jazz in BENELUX, Hein Van De Geyn, Teun Verbruggen, Jeff Herr, Jozef Dumoulin and Hans Van Oosterhut He also has worked and recorded with talented Danish musicians Jacob Anderskov, Stefan Pasborg, Jakob Riis, Soren Kjaergaard and Peter Friis-Nielsen He has worked with Finnish musicians Teppo Hauta-Aho Olavi Louhivuori Pepa Paivinen and Markku Ounaskari Mark has also performed and recorded in Turkey with Senol Kucukyildirim and collaborated with Erdem Helvacıoğlu on a soundscape concept recording.

Snow which was recorded in Istanbul and produced in Cork featuring Senol Kucukyildirim Can Ömer Uygan and Murat Copur is a concept album based on a novel of the same name by Turkish author Orhan Pamuk

In late 2008 Mark decided to move in a new direction musically, currently he is working on material in the Rock/Ambient/ and Post-Rock genre's. He has also switched from being a Left-Handed player to playing Right-Handed which gives his new material a fresh perspective. He is a member of pop punk band The Kings Of Luxembourg, which performs energetic post-punk music with elements of pop and rock. He is also continuing to compose and create electronic music on computer using field recordings with a focus on Urban Environments and their unique cultural, social, linguistic and historic qualities. Mark has also become an ambient guitarist of note creating soundscapes and soundfields by processing his guitar with delay/reverb in conjunction with E-Bow/Bow/Slide and various pedals. In July 2009 Mark created and performed a Sound Piece in celebration of the Apollo 11 Lunar Landing at Blackrock Castle Observatory in Cork. In August 2009 a new relationship with the prestigious Aucourant record label has culminated in the release of the cutting edge CD * Grønland which was recorded in Copenhagen with (Stefan Pasborg) on drums and (Jakob Riis) on laptop it features Ambient electronic material that takes its inspiration from Greenland.

Mark is working on a short movie production at the moment for which he is also composing the music, more are planned. He also plans to develop his unique installation concepts One of which, Shipping Forecast was premiered in late August 2009, another opVex a commissioned work was premiered at Wexford Opera House in November 2009 He has been composing and performing minimal techno, which incorporates elements of industrial and ambient music Mark is composing spoken word narratives that he will juxtapose with environmental soundscapes and other ambient sound pieces. opVex installation premiered in New York 2010. Installation pieces Metal and Laundromat were premiered in Varna, Bulgaria in April 2010. Participated in a recording project with Italian Sound Artist Domenico Sciajno, the music features sounds captured by Domenico in Sicily which were processed, edited and developed by Mark.

Mark has written a trilogy of novellas which he hopes to publish in the future.

A concept album paying homage to the Apollo project has been released on TIBProd Italy. It features audio from the lunar landings juxtaposed with ambient guitar, synthesizers and percussion.

Mark has also done 2 works of Environmental recordings in his native Cork City as an adjunct to 4 Urban Landscapes. Nature and Markets are a set of audio kaleidoscopic sonic polaroids of Urban nature and commercial activity. He has also recorded a set of works with a maritime dimension using the harbour area of Cork as a sound-source. Astral Fishing a CD which has Finland as its core subject matter has been re-released with two extra tracks Mannerheim and Lintujen kokous. It is squarely in the Post Eno-Hassell idiom but given a fresh perspective by Mark and Finns; drummer Olavi Louhivuori and composer/bassist Teppo Hauta-aho. Conceptual, meditative and atmospheric ambience. Mark has also worked on a maritime environmental project featuring audio from around the cork harbour area. Mark has been invited to contribute three installation pieces to the 15th Anniversary of the Bulart Gallery in Varna, Bulgaria. opVex has been featured in (e)migration exhibition at Bulart gallery in Varna. Mark has just completed a tribute to (Umberto Nobile) with Daniele Santini called Norge-Italia, which is a tribute to Nobile's and Amundsen's first flight over the Arctic in the Dirigible Norge and Nobile's subsequent expedition Italia.

Soundscape Weir from Urban Nature was presented in Cork.

Discography

Online Performance

Videos

Installation Pieces

Television

Later with the Grunts Kings Of Luxembourg

References

  1. ↑ Fordham, John (22 December 2006). "Mark O'Leary/ Cuong Vu/ Tom Rainey, Waiting". The Guardian. Retrieved 20 February 2011.

External links