Skibbereen Arts Festival now in its 5th year presents its most exciting and ambitious line up to date. Multi-instrumentalist Valgeir Sigurðsson will make a rare appearance in Ireland over the summer when he plays Skibbereen Arts Festival on August 4th in Abbeystrewery Church.
Sigurðsson is a world renowned composer, musician, engineer and mixer. As a producer, he has spent over a decade cultivating projects by diverse international artists whilst developing his own particular magic brand of recording artistry - now with three solo albums to his name. He is one of Björk's primary studio collaborators and is also the founder of the Bedroom Community record label as well as Iceland’s top recording facility Greenhouse Studios where his collaborators include Feist, Bonnie 'Prince' Billy, Camille, CocoRosie, The Magic Numbers many others. In Skibbereen Sigurðsson plays with London based Irish viola player Liam Byrne, who in the past has collaborated with Damon Albarn among others.
Making a return visit to Skibbereen, Chris Watson will perform his acclaimed album El Tren Fantasma at Glebe Gardens on Saturday, 3rd of August. El Tren Fantasma, (The Ghost Train), is Chris Watson's 4th solo album and his first since Weather Report in 2003, which was named as one of the albums you should hear before you die in The Guardian. Chris Watson is one of the world's leading recorders of wildlife and natural phenomena. His television work includes many programmes in the David Attenborough ‘Life’ series including ‘The Life of Birds’ which won a BAFTA Award for ‘Best Factual Sound’ in 1996. More recently Watson was the location sound recordist with David Attenborough on the BBC’s series ‘Frozen Planet’ which won a BAFTA Award for ‘Best Factual Sound’ (2012).
While on Friday August 2nd, acclaimed musician Seán Mac Erlaine and visual artist, DJ and broadcaster Donal Dineen will perform combining a circular dialogue between lush improvised soundscapes and expressive and experimental live film. The evening will combine improvisations & music from Seán's new solo album, innovative and beautiful visual art from Donal as well as presenting both artists in an engaging open conversation where the audience discovers what drives these artists to create new work in the moment. Donal Dineen will also play a live DJ set later that evening!
