'Remember that you die.'

Although there are many objets d'art and musical forms arising from the macabre reminder of death, the Renaissance practice of the memento mori or vanitas still life is, perhaps, the most replete with symbolism. Common images include the obvious, such as skulls or skeletons, but also represent other fleeting, fading themes: decaying fruit, cut flowers, recently snuffed candles (the smoke still present but the flame extinguished), hourglasses in mid-count, soap bubbles floating above a skull, spilled chalices, and so on.

In this work, the entire form derives from a near-infinite reverb of a complex, layered impulse. The impulse lasts mere 10ths of a second, but the remainder of the work is the prolonged reverberation tail, freezing the impulse in time. As the piece dies away, elements of the complex sound swell in and out of the foreground, allowing time to investigate each symbol in the still life.

A Pure Data patch generates Memento Mori in real time, which is the preferred presentation of the work. Random processes select the layers to emerge or fade throughout the course of the work. Though no element moves through space, random draws determine the fixed location of each layer at the start of the patch. Therefore, each live instantiation of the work is different than previous performances.

The longest river in Ireland, the Shannon, played crucial parts in the history of Limerick and, of course, the entire Shannon region. The river continues to impact local economy and culture, from power generation to geographical boundaries. It is a source of unique research opportunities in marine biology. And its course from the Shannon Pot to the Atlantic Ocean passes through many regions and cultures of Irish life. The river was named for Sionann, the granddaughter of Lir. In different versions of the story, Sionann died as a result of reaching for the fruit of knowledge. Whether she ate the fruit directly, whether it was a berry or something else, or whether Sionann ate a salmon that ate a berry is a matter of who tells the tale. Whether it was because women were banned from knowledge, or all humans were banned, or whether Sionann herself was cursed, the consequences of gaining her knowledge caused the waters to overflow, or perhaps break a dam of some kind, and wash her out to sea. In contrast, Fionn mac Cumhaill became a great warrior for similar actions. Whether the Shannon river already existed, or whether this flood created the Shannon river, Sionann's tale gave the Shannon river its name. Whether it was the fruit she ate or some demi-god-like powers of a granddaughter of Lir, Sionann may have infused the river with the source of life and prosperity in the Shannon region. Depending on the version of the tale, the story leads to fascinating observations on water myths, the feminine in mythology, the feminine in post-Christian Ireland and a myriad of thought-provoking questions on religion, gender and origin. If there is any story to be told, the title and the ending of the piece is the point: the story of Sionann continues, both drowned and still drowning. And, the story of the Shannon region is ongoing, more of a question than a conclusion.

Acknowledgements
Jonathan O'Neill, Síle de Cléir, Nora Ní Mhurchu (agus a máthair): Thug siad cúnamh dom le gramadach na Gaeilge. Is liomsa amháin aon bhotún atá ann.
My colleagues at the University of Limerick, the folks at The Contemporary Music Centre (Ireland), Dave Fennessy, Steve Ashby and Erik Gustafsson: Agus í á bá, would not exist if not for their time, resources and assistance.
Go raibh míle maith agaibh.

En ocasión del Festival Atemporánea 2019, compuse esta obra como tributo a mis amigos argentinos y con el fin conectar algunas impresiones sonoras de mis países con Argentina. Los sonidos provienen de lugares en Irlanda y se combinan con sonidos sintetizados que se transforman de uno en el siguiente. Las transformaciones son un poco extrañas o alquímicas, de ahí el título. Los elementos se pueden clasificar en sonidos ambientales, modelos estocásticos de instalaciones de arte sonoro, así como alusiones musicales que tienen relevancia (velada) para mí y mis enlaces con Argentina a través de mis amistades.

This generative work can be run automatically or performed live, if desired. Automatic playback is preferred. Nyx (Night) was the daughter of Chaos, sister of Erebus (Darkness). Before the world was Chaos, and from Chaos, Nyx and Erebus were born. Zeus is the son of Nyx. This piece relies on chaos maps to create timbres and colours of noise. These maps are then passed through phase vocoders, time stretched and pitch-shifted, and presented against the original sounds. This work was originally conceived as an etude.

Our sound and music installation explores presence and absence by revealing the acoustic disturbances caused in an interior space when bodies occupy it. Through sound alone, we can sense the presence of others by the subtle changes their bodies make to the environment. In this work, we use those sonic disturbances to make an oblique statement of presence and absence, making the absent bodies themselves audible as acoustic reflections and shadows. The work is primarily an installation intended for MISE-EN_PLACE Bushwick. However, its construction allows it to be transported to other locations, making MISE-EN_PLACE Bushwick present in other places. It also enables members of ensemble mise-en to perform with their own shadows.

Acknowledgements: The instrumental recordings for the installation were made by Kelley Barnett (Alto Flute), Mark Broschinsky (Trombone), Josh Perry (Percussion) and Yumi Suehiro (Piano). Impulse responses were recorded from Kelley Barnett, Mark Broschinsky and Josh Perry. We would like to gratefully acknowledge the time and effort on the part of the musicians. We would also like to thank Moon Young Ha, Jordann Davis and Kelley Barnett for all their help during our residency at MISE-EN_PLACE Bushwick.

John Bowers and I hung out in Newcastle for a few months, designing our own improvisation instruments with laptops and a variety of old, new, and off-the-shelf interfaces. Then we took some time to record a few performances. We're using chaos, cellular automata, non-linear feedback oscillators (by Bowers and Miller Puckette), and a variety of other crazies.

plangent/perdu is a real-time Pd composition inspired by the spatial possibilities afforded by WFS. There is one source sound created with the z12 algorithm (see Puckette 2015, SEAMUS) premiered in the work Cubic Zirconia (2014). However, this sound is 'invisible' throughout the majority of the piece. Instead, it is the source for 8 different resonators, all different processes that can only make sound as a consequence of an input source. At first, we hear the source sound exposed. But it soon disappears, and all we hear are the resonators responding to an unheard influence.

In my previous works, I aimed to create an immersive experience of frenetic but incoherent motion around the listener. However, WFS permits sound to move through or next to the listener. So this piece explores placing sounds in various points of space, still or moving.

Later, I needed to translate plangent/perdu for the 124 speaker system at the Cube at Virginia Tech. Both the technology and aspects of the spatial aesthetics had to change. The 8-channel version is a re-spatialized version of the Cube performance, which can be recorded to fixed media.

resolution was the second work I composed for the Cube at Virginia Tech. Unlike Cubic Zirconia, it has 32 independent channels assigned to multiple speakers in the Cube.

Inspired by the work of Kaija Saariaho, Homage to Saariaho blends textures and long gestures using random processes and spectral information from sieves and a multiphonic flute tone. It also uses low frequency noise for different timbres.

Some of the processes are controlled by typed-in keyboard values. The performer types portions of a text taken from the liner notes of Maa in four languages discussing Saariaho's use of timbre and noise.

This piece was composed with a series of actions that control parameters of fixed and random gestures and textures. Following the score, one could perform this work as originally composed.

s/d is a real-time Pd composition that continues previous threads of musical exploration while introducing new sound synthesis methods. Kerry works with "textural composition," an aesthetic that relies entirely on large, static sound masses consisting of inner details rather than perceptible sound objects. Similarly, spatialization techniques suggest high degree of sonic motility with little to no perceptible spatial trajectories or paths of sounds.

s/d utilizes an algorithm designed in collaboration with Miller Puckette, first used in Cubic Zirconia (2014). These processes are dealt with in depth in Puckette's paper, "Maximally uniform sequences from stochastic processes." (SEAMUS 2015). s/d also uses a new synthesis method developed by Miller Puckette: coupled oscillators created through non-linear feedback. By sending impulses into the oscillators, complex and rich sonorities can emerge. s/d uses 12 crafted timbres from the oscillators, which are triggered by the z12 outputs and impulse chains.

requiem was started in 2004 in Paris. For such a short work, it has probably been the most difficult to write. After living on a shelf for a few years, it was further developed in San Diego, California. Again, it mouldered on a back shelf until 2013. It was finally completed in Limerick, Ireland in 2014.

The work was originally intended as a tribute to my father, but the time it needed to grow has made it more of a musical exploration of loss and remembrance in much more general and less personal ways.

Cubic Zirconia is a work composed specifically for the Cube at Virginia Tech.

Miller Puckette proposed an alternative to Markov chains, the z12 algorithm. z12 outputs chains of 12 numbers using percentages of previous outputs. In collaboration, Puckette and Hagan developed a synthesis method using z12. The processes are dealt with in depth in Puckette's paper, “Maximally uniform sequences from stochastic processes.” (SEAMUS 2015)

I first met Dan Bodwell in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in 1992. We lost touch for many years shortly after that. One day, almost 20 years later, a Dan Bodwell was lined up to play in Limerick, Ireland. I thought: there is no way it's the same Dan Bodwell. Of course, it was. Dan asked me for a piece in 1992. I finally wrote it in 2011.

Morphons and Bions is a real-time Pd composition that explores noise-based synthesis techniques and random processes to create the impression of living mechanisms. These mechanisms live and grow independently until reaching a critical mass, when they become a single organism. The morphologically independent sounds combined with the sounds that behave together as a single organ give rise to the title. As a real-time piece, the details of each realisation changes from performance to performance. However, the consistent timbres and overall form of the work retains the piece's identity.

The violin parts in ophelia's revenge are much like chorused lines of thought, each reaching the same conclusion in concurrent and parallel fashion. The computer presents the material from the violins as either a simultaneous reflection of the violins, slowed and examined more closely, or as distant reminiscences that, like aftershocks, fade over time. The computer does not introduce any new timbres; these thoughts come from the same mind that is coming to one, considered decision.

Commissioned by János Négyesy and Päivikki Nykter, this work for two violins and computer explores musical suspension. Through a sudden shift in material, echoed in places by the computer material, the piece runs frantically up a cliff and jumps off. The moment of time before the fall is frozen, the musical material is suspended, hovering in air.

(duo) is the first work where I attempted to create a non-normative experience of musical time and space. By writing for the instruments with pitches and techniques designed to blur which instrument is creating each sound, very small pitch and timbre spaces are magnified and frozen for exploration.