Ergodos: “Genre is a useful starting point, but what really counts is the experience”

The musician Seán Mac Erlaine told State Magazine a few years ago that "genre is really a marketing tool", and it's that sentiment that Benedict Schlepper-Connolly and Garrett Sholdice have run with ever since forming their label and production company Ergodos over ten years ago.

Ergodos primarily releases music and puts on performances, but while much of its activities are focused on music of a studious background (where “composition” is used more than the term “song”) but encompasses contemporary, jazz, ambient, folk, classical and electronica; there’s a clear willingness to explore the blurred lines between sensibilities.

Schlepper-Connolly suggests that genre is a good starting point, but audiences are more open-minded. “Genre can be a useful starting point for a conversation, but what really counts is the experience,” he says.

Both men have plenty of experience themselves. Beginning with Sholdice as a boy chorister in St Patrick’s Cathedral, Dublin, and Schlepper-Connolly played violin in the Dublin Youth Orchestra, and sang with RTÉ Cór na nÓg. They met on a music composition summer school and later, studying music at Trinity.

Having also played in rock bands as teenagers and citing Planxty, PJ Harvey, John Cage and Kanye West as influences, it's no surprise Ergodos has a wide remit – with releases on the label including the jazz ambience of Mac Erlaine's A Slender Song, the electronica of Linda Buckley's Immersia, the dark gothic compositions of Dubh, the piano work of Simon O'Connor's What is living and what is dead and their most recent, Schlepper-Connolly's own minimal The weathered stone, a work inspired by memory, maps and landscapes.

With a set-up that’s less traditional label and more music company run by artists, Ergodos relies on production work, music sales, composition, teaching and project-based grants to tick over.

Moving with the times
In 2016, releasing recorded music is a less reliable source of income than it has ever been. The barrier to distribution may be lower but that presents new challenges and opportunities. Ergodos have signed a distribution deal with Cargo, which will help get their physical releases beyond Ireland, but you will find their releases on Spotify too.

“We’re putting all our new releases on streaming services because we feel you have to move with the listening culture; if people are listening on Spotify, then our releases need to be there to properly connect with people,” explains Schlepper-Connolly.

While he says streaming services are a great idea, they don’t work financially “just yet” but Ergodos are optimistic that will change.

“We also find that putting our catalogue on streaming services doesn’t affect our physical sales; the people that will pay for the 180g vinyl release will still want the tangible object. If anything, streaming is a new way to those audiences.”

"Do what you have to do and do it soon"
Ergodos have an active interest in site-specific concerts, having programmed events in Cafe Oto in London, performance art space over a shopping centre in east Berlin, the National Concert Hall's Kevin Barry Recital Room before it was in regular use along with presentations in New York and Amsterdam.

They were inspired to start the Printing House Festival of New Music in 2006 after American experimentalist composer James Tenney encouraged them to go DIY. “Do what you have to do and do it soon,” was his advice.

Ergodos’ concert series The Santa Rita Concerts typifies the pair’s ideals. Taking place in the Little Museum Of Dublin, a Georgian townhouse on Stephen’s Green, the series started “to create concentrated, immersive musical experiences.” They say there’s an audience in Dublin “crying out” for this kind of programming.

Sholdice explains the series: “A Santa Rita Concert combines the intense sense of intimacy, energy exchange and magic that you find in a really good trad session or an impromptu performance at a house-party, with high production values, beautiful architecture, the sense of occasion and anticipation you get from a well-produced concert.”

The night involves a fireside interview with the performer of the night before a performance in the space’s downstairs candlelit gallery with wine provided by the sponsor. Previous concerts have included folk musician and “song collector” Sam Lee, sound artist Chris Watson, and alt-jazz ensemble SnowPoet.

Upcoming performers include soul and folk singer Loah (who will perform unplugged), Irish harpsichordist Malcolm Proud and Irish composer-performer Jennifer Walshe among other things has created a fake history of Irish avant-garde music and operated through alter-egos. “A Dadaist Halloween Séance” is how Ergodos describe her forthcoming show on October 26th.

“We’re tapping into a kind of underground reservoir that has been hidden from view for some time,” suggests Schlepper-Connolly. “There’s also a feeling of trust that develops: we meet many people that will come to the Santa Rita Concerts because they like the atmosphere and they know they’ve enjoyed something in the space before. The free wine helps too.”

- For more, see  ergodos.ie.