In response to Nocturnes, I thought to wear some noise cancelling headphones and walk the nighttime streets of Paris. Tramping to the relentless beat of one particular Somadrone sample, I recorded my rambles. It drove me on, I couldn't stop.
Not being able to hear what I was recording, it all failed to attract my attention. Later, listening back, I heard these curious fragments, these sounds that I had passed, all sorts of things emerging and receding from the nighttime, calling to mind a less than comfortable dream.

I was interested in previous participants' usage of tape and analog techniques. My own route to imperfection and the sound of decay is through a fiddle. I recorded at night, in a chapel, various sounds.

Some random ideas from all this please me. The way Paris is laid out, a fractal, perfect for wandering. A faint and ephemeral sonic map over the city itself, a palimpsest. The discontinuity on looping the sample, so that your foot, having been in a steady beat, takes
a moment to find itself.  The way sounds from city and fiddle
intersect: a creaking gate matches, by chance, a chance
harmonic.  A duet for fiddle and city.  Virtually
colouring your perception through your ears.

Caoimhín Ó Raghallaigh / May 2011

Caoimhín Ó Raghallaigh is a fiddle player from Ireland with a background in traditional music. He has released numerous records, including "Where the One Eyed Man is King" (2007). He plays in two contemporary traditional bands, "This Is How We Fly" and "The Gloaming". He has made audio installations with friends for both the Dublin and Edinburgh Fringe Festivals & the Irish Museum of
Modern Art. He has written music for the Abbey Theatre, and works regularly with Gare St Lazare Players as a composer and performer. He is currently on residency
in Paris, writing contemporary traditional solo material for acoustic performance in churches.