About Carpark-Sci-Fi:

Carpark Sci-Fi is a place for some music & visual projects I've been involved with. A sketchbook, an archive,.. fun..whatever

A sample of one of the pieces I made for the film. Improvised during a thunder storm.

This film was made by Ten Thousand Hours and entirely in 'Lockdown' in 2020. A film special event named Bloomsday Lock-in, the film was available to watch for one week only, to celebrate Bloomsday. All proceeds & donations from the premiere went solely to benefit CHIPS SOUP KITCHEN & WOMEN’S CENTER in BROOKLYN

The film features John Turturro, Patrick Bergin, Aidan Gillen, Ian McElhinney, Colin Quinn (SNL), Shane Mac Gowan, Spider Stacy (The Pogues), Barry Ward , Billy Carter renowned Irish poets Theo Dorgan & Paula Meehan PLUS over 75 international actors from stage, screen that stretches from Tipperary, Limerick, Galway, Belfast, Dublin, London, Strasbourg, Paris, Brooklyn, New York to Los Angeles.

The Trailer is available to watch here www.tenthousandhours.ie/ulysses

About the project:

I spent a few weeks last May/June 2020 working on an Online Event called Bloomsday LockIn an adaption of James Joyce's Ulysses. Ten Thousand Hours Films contacted me and asked me if I would be able to help with the music for the live event film. Which was an amazing, complicated project for them to do for a charity based in New York and I was very grateful to have a focus at that particular time.

As it happened we have an old bokity upright piano in the house so with some mics and various bits, the piano became the vehicle for the music I was doing for it it also sort of suited the era Ulysses. It was experimental in nature, hiss and all, tape dictaphones, phones, sm57s, effects pedals.. I even swept the piano with a brush at some stage and I tried a bit of singing in the style of the great Tenor John McCormack.

These recordings were all just audio textures to add to the ambiance. Drawing usually helps me think stuff out. Through some drawing I was imagining that the piano notes were locked down too. Locked into the piano's structure, they had to imagine stories and emotions etc..the playing of the notes freed them..I know one of the drawings was of James Joyces head in the shape of a piano and everything in there was the various stories and tales.

Reverb and resonance was definitely on my mind in what I was doing and trying to capture it. Some were improvised, some were a bit more structured but all in all I'm glad I got down what I did. There were various other versions that were used but herein are the main motifs etc. I love the idea of the improvised bits being recorded because today I think I wouldn't be able to play them. They only really existed in that moment but they were captured for the piece.

The nicest thing was being able to regularly chat with Trevor and Laoisa who were very encouraging and just let me try stuff out.
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