Culture Night 2025 @ Hugh Lane Gallery

Ellie O’Neill is an artist from Co. Meath, Ireland. Her music weaves a rich, diverse and tender landscape, traversing raw and intuitive explorations of intimacy and loss, friendship and queer identity. Writing mainly with voice and acoustic guitar, her songs range from cyclical, meditative, two-chord reveries to big-hearted, muscular, grungy confessionals. Merging poignant lived experience with an esoteric, dream-like symbolism, the complexity of her songs is heightened through fluid collaboration with various band members, while always placing emotional truth at the forefront. Over the past few years, Ellie has toured widely both as a collaborator and a solo artist, performing across Ireland and the UK. Shows include support tours for artists like Adrianne Lenker and singer John Francis Flynn, as well as shows at Pitchfork London, Other Voices and Green Man Festival. This year, she was tipped as one of The Irish Times ‘Artists to Watch for 2025’.  Ellie currently lives in Dublin and is interested in the poems of Minnie Bruce Pratt, laughing and swimming in the sea. Her single ‘Bohemia’ is available on Bandcamp now.

Of One is the latest vehicle of Dublin’s Alan O’Boyle, who’s been prominent in electronic music since the ’90s with Decal, and more recently with Legion of Two (with David Lacey) and Legion Of One. His work in various guises has appeared on labels such as Planet Mu, Rotters Golf Club, D1 Recordings, Leaf, Law & Auder and Saberettes.

David Murphy and the Ether Ensemble – David Murphy takes the pedal steel guitar outside the confines of its traditional roots with frequent ventures into a range of genres, spanning Americana and folk to ambient, experimental music and film soundtracks and is best known for his work with artists such as The Delines, Willy Vlautin, The Lost Brothers, M. Ward and Jolie Holland amongst others.

Lisa Dowdall and Seán Mac Erlaine Having studied in the UK, Holland, Limerick and Switzerland, Lisa has returned to her hometown of Dublin to join the revolution in changing the attitude towards classical music in Ireland. It all began for Lisa when she first performed with the Crash Ensemble in its US Debut in 2007 in Merkin Hall. She became excited by the musical ethos behind Crash and the relentless enthusiasm of its members towards the music. The energy of the ensemble and its audience opened up a new philosophy to Lisa in how to present concerts. Lisa has since set up the Irish Chamber Music Society to spread this idea of chamber music throughout Ireland in all its forms from early music through classical to hardcore contemporary, experimenting with new musical genres, art forms and venues.

Seán Mac Erlaine is a composer, musician and mastering engineer. Recognised as one of Ireland’s most forward-thinking creative musicians, he has worked with many leading lights of music today. Seán’s work intersects folk, free improvisation, jazz, experimental and traditional music. Seán tours and works internationally with a hugely diverse range of musicians and artists reflecting his own versatility and interest in cross-platform work. He has performed with leading musical figures including Jan Bang, Barry Adamson, David Toop, Ernst Reijseger, Jennifer Walshe, The Smith Quartet, Jeff Ballard, Hayden Chisholm, Eivind Aarset, Caoimhín Ó Raghallaigh, Valgeir Sigurðsson, Iarla O’Lionaird, Maeve Gilchrist, Erik Friedlander, Damo Suzuki and many more.

Matthew Jacobson is an Irish drummer, improviser, composer, educator and producer. Matthew leads his own groups ReDiviDeR (free improv quartet) and Insufficient Funs (ebullient drums and bass saxophone duo) and has recently developed a solo drums+synths project. He co-leads Roamer (quartet of Ireland’s most internationally recognised improvisers), hyperlynx (trio with Swiss-based collaborators), Origin Story (contemporary piano trio) and regularly tours, performs and records with leading creative musicians around the world. Matthew’s compositions are represented by the Contemporary Music Centre, Ireland.

There is an Island combine rich vocals, earthy violin textures, minimal piano, and ethereal soundscapes to form songs inspired by the memories and places that remain in our hearts. Singer Michelle O’Rourke and the composing duo of Benedict Schlepper Connolly(violin) and Garrett Sholdice (piano) channel an eclectic spread of influences – from Nick Cave to Planxty to Philip Glass – to create lingering, intimate performances.  Expect hushed invocations, oceanic lullabies and haunting melodies with a sound that is at once transparent and full of warmth.

Zeropunkt began as a quartet called ¡NO! in 2013, originally including Roller Sparkers man Graham Montgomery (guitars, synth, Roland Handsonic, mbira, kalimba, percussion). Graham left the group in 2016 and we re-grouped as a trio called Zeropunkt. Over the many years, individually and collectively, we have collaborated live with an array of underground pioneers including but not limited to: Glenn Branca, Damo Suzuki, Kawabata Makoto, the late Itaru Oki (RIP), Makoto Sato, Alfred 23 Harth, Katsura Yamauchi, Paul Roe, and Kazuhisa Uchihashi among others. Since 2015, under either moniker, we have released 15 albums across all formats. The most recent is 2022’s ZPEP, and it appears on cassette courtesy of Last Of Our Kind. More recently we have returned to quartet format, having been joined by Hugh O’ Neill on trumpet.